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Gail Weston 
























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' Say, 
with 


you're swell! ’ 
enthusiasm !’ 


he cried 
Page 15 


I 


Gail Weston 


By 

Mrs. S. R. Graham Clark 

Author of 

“Phyllis Burton” “ The Cry of the 
Two-Thirds ” “ Yensie Walton 
Books,” etc. 



Philadelphia 


Griffith & Rowland Press 

Boston Chicago 

Atlanta 

New York St. Louis 

Dallas 



\ UfiriARY Of CONCrTsS j 
Two Cooley Received 

OCT 4 190 7 

Copyright £ntry 

if 'foi 

CLASS A XXc„ No, 

l%S osz 

COPY B. 


Copyright 1907 by the 
American Baptist Publication Society 


Published September, 1907 


* • 
« ( « 


from tbe Society’s own press 


AFFECTIONATELY DEDICATED 
TO 

XCbe Uwo lt>as 


BY THE AUTHOR 
















































































J 































































































































TABLE OF CONTENTS 


Chapter Page 

I. Ted’s Welcome u 

II. Pease Porridge — Pie 25 

III. Tom’s Ambition 52 

IV. A Talk About Mothers 61 

V. A Secret no Longer 72 

VI. Broken Ties and Breaking Hearts .... 80 

VII. Not Forever . . 92 

VIII. A Divided House 105 

IX. Discouragement in Beginning 117 

X. Bright and Dark Threads 131 

XI. To the Breaking Point 144 

XII. Beginning in the City 155 

XIII. Tom’s “Chance” 164 

XIV. I Need Him to be Real 173 

XV. A “Forgib me” Prayer 185 

XVI. Tom a Witness 195 

XVII. A Call to the City 208 

XVIII. What Time I am Afraid 219 


7 


8 TABLE OF CONTENTS 

Chapter Page 

XIX. Lost ! 229 

XX. Driven by Despair 241 

XXI. Burning the Manuscript 256 

XXII. Trusting in Almighty God 270 

XXIII. My Miss and My Lady 276 

XXIV. Called Home 288 

XXV. Dolly in Danger 298 

XXVI. Always a Man He Can Use 31 1 

XXVII. A Funny Angel 323 

XXVIII. Finding an Uncle 338 

XXIX. The Strange Nurse 349 

XXX. I Thought it was Lovisy 361 

XXXI. At Beechlands 373 

XXXII. A Common Engineer 384 

XXXIII. Dolly’s Folly and Its Cure ..... .397 

XXXIV. The Day of “Merrycles” 407 

XXXV. Marriage Bells 417 

XXXVI. Good-by 426 


LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 


Pagb 

‘“Say, you're swell!' he cried with enthusiasm" 
(Frontispiece) 15 

“‘You have spoken the word. There is nothing 
further to be said'" 87 

“Side by side in the edge of the woods they knelt 
to pray" 183 

“ The maiden drew as near to the glittering win- 
dows as she dared" 254 

“ ‘ Yes. We'll have to hurry. I have the tickets ' " 326 

“Absorbed in her own joy, the young girl had no 
thought of her sister " 398 
























GAIL WESTON 


I 

ted's welcome 

D OES Mrs. Rollins live here?” 

“ Yes, she does.” 

“ Is she at home ? ” 

“ No.” 

The questioner was a bright-faced, well-dressed 
youth of seventeen; the person questioned, a shabby 
girl of twelve. They stood the one within, the other 
outside the door of a forlorn-looking little cottage 
sorely needing a coat of paint. 

“ When do you expect her back ? ” continued the 
questioner. 

“ Back!” 

“Yes. When do you expect mamma home?” 

“ Mamma ! ” 

The lad laughed and examined the rather pretty face 
and out-at-the-elbow costume of the girl before him 
somewhat critically. “ I am Theodore Weston,” he 
said just a trifle haughtily, presenting his card. 

“ 4 Theodore Weston ’ ! ” echoed the girl. “ You ! ” 
Her eyes devoured him. 

“ Why not ? Perhaps you will be good enough to tell 
me your name no_w,” laughed the stranger. 


n 


12 


GAIL WESTON 


“I am Dorothea Allen Rollins,” answered the girl 
with an important toss of her head. 

The young man bowed profoundly, removing his hat. 
“ Perhaps Miss Dorothea Allen Rollins will kindly in- 
form me as to the hour when her mamma and mine is 
expected home,” he said, his eyes twinkling mis- 
chievously. 

“ Your mamma and mine ! My mother, do you 
mean? She won’t be home till dark.” 

“Not till dark! I can’t wait so long as that for a 
sight of her. I’ve come more than a hundred miles to 
see her. Can’t you direct me to where she is? May I 
come in ? I’d like to have a talk with you.” 

“ No. I won’t let you step into this house until it’s 
tidied up. But you can go round to the back door and 
sit on the stoop with Ben and Pet if you like. There’s 
a tree out there and it’s shady.” Having given this 
gracious permission, Dorothea Allen Rollins turned to 
go in and slammed the door behind her. 

It did not shut, however. Theodore Weston had 
thrust his foot over the sill in time to prevent that. 
“ It strikes me this is rather shabby treatment to extend 
to a stranger, Miss Rollins,” he said gruffly, “ especially 
when that stranger is a brother you have never met 
before. I’m not going to the back door nor away from 
this house until you tell me where to find mamma. I’ve 
come to see her and I intend to see her and at once.” 

“ It’s taken you very sudden,” answered the girl 
saucily. “ I’m twelve years old and you’ve never been 
here before. She’s up at Squire Banscombe’s sewing — 
if you must know.” 

“ In what direction is that, please ? Come, be a 
good girl,” coaxingly, “ and I’ll buy you a ribbon for 


ted’s welcome 


13 


that pretty hair of yours. It’s just the color of gold.” 
He had touched the right chord. Dorothea was vain 
of her personal appearance. 

“ P’raps Ben will take you there,” she said, molli- 
fied. “ I’ll ask him if you’ll keep out. I can’t have you 
see the house as it is. I’ve been lazy to-day. I s’pose 
you’re expecting to come here to dinner ? ” 

“ Don’t you want me ? ” with a smile. 

“Gracious, no. We haven’t a thing in the house fit 
to eat.” 

“ That needn’t worry you. I can go to the hotel as 
well as not. I left my grip there. I do not wish to dis- 
commode you,” said the youth politely. 

Miss Dorothea Allen Rollins sent a rapid glance of 
mingled surprise and admiration at the young man 
who could put up at the hotel and, thrusting her head 
through an inner door called shrilly: 

“ Benny, Benny, come round to the front door. 
Some one wants you.” 

A small boy with bare legs and feet and well- 
mended trousers answered this summons, followed by 
a tiny girl with soft golden curls and wondering blue 
eyes. 

“ Take this gentleman to the squire’s,” commanded 
his sister. “ He wants to see mother. Pet, you go 
right back to the yard again. I can’t have you under 
my feet if the work’s to be done. I wish Allie Rollins 
would ever get home.” 

Ben’s brown eyes scanned the handsome face of the 
youth before him curiously. “ Do you want my 
mother ? ” he asked. 

“ I want my mother,” was the smiling reply. 

“ Is she at the squire’s too ? ” 


14 


GAIL WESTON 


“ It seems so. At least Miss Dorothea Allen Rollins 
says so. We’ll know when we get there. How old are 
you, Ben ? ” 

“ ’Mos’ seven. I can read in the second reader an’ 
Tom reads Latin.” 

“Who’s Tom?” 

“ He’s my brovver. He’s Dolly’s twin an’ ’mos’ fir- 
teen years old. Mr. Taylor says he’s the bes’ scholar 
in school — none of the others read Latin an’ Tom oney 
reads a little, ’bout ‘ Seize Her.’ Say, Dolly don’t 
b’lieve there’s any ‘ Seize Her ’ at all, but Tom says 
there is. Did you ever see him ? ” 

“ Never. But there’s no doubt there was once such a 
chap,” with a roguish laugh. “ What makes your hair 
so kinky? Must be a little darky blood in you some- 
where, I’m thinking,” tumbling the old cap from Ben’s 
curly poll and toppling the child over as he stooped to 
pick it up. 

“ Is it all fun ? ” panted Ben as he came to his feet, 
scanning the amused face above him with serious eyes. 

“ No. It’s earnest,” answered Theodore, assuming a 
gruff tone. 

“ Then you come round to our house after dark an’ 
Dolly and me’ll lick you,” was the immediate reply. 

“ I’ll be there. Is there a shop around here where they 
sell candy? Here, catch it. That’s for something 
good,” tossing the child a half-dollar. “ Who’s Dolly ? 
Surely not that young lady we have just left? ” 

“ Yep. The girl that tole me to come wiv you.” 

“ And she helps you fight your battles ? ” 

“ You bet. She won’t let any one ’pose on me.” 

“ But why after dark ? Can’t she fight in the day- 
light or is it to spare her reputation ? ” 


ted's welcome 


i5 


“ Abby’ll stop us if we don’t sneak off. Oh, I forgot, 
Abby’s gone now. You can come up any time an’ we’ll 
fix you. Dolly always helps me. She’s my sister.” 

“ She’s my sister too. I’m your brother, young man.” 

“ Ain’t eiver. Tom’s my brovver.” 

“Well, I’m Tom’s brother. I think that makes me 
your brother too.” 

“ You ain’t Tom’s brovver. Tom has oney me.” 
The child eyed the young man as if this was unan- 
swerable logic. “ What’s your name ? ” he asked. 

“ Ted — Ted Weston.” 

“ Weston’s Abby’s name. Do you know our Abby ? ” 

" Not very well. She must be my sister. Where is 
she, Ben ? ” 

“Up at Jenkinses’ takin’ care of the baby, an’ Bell, 
an’ Sue.” 

“No!” said Ted. “Not working out? Not taking 
care of children for money ? ” 

“ Yep. She’s goin’ to get Tom an’ me some shoes 
when she’s paid. She said so.” 

The bright face of the child’s listener clouded. “ Is 
it far to the squire’s house ? ” he asked, all the merri- 
ment quite gone from his gray eyes. 

“ Oney round the corner. There, that’s it up on that 
hill, an’ there’s mammy at the winder, upstairs. Can’t 
you see her? She’s lookin’ up — she sees us. Won’t 
she be s’prised ? Are you my truly brovver ? ” 

“ Yes,” said Ted soberly. He halted, lifted his eyes 
to the window where his mother sat sewing, raised his 
hat and bowed, all very gravely and all to the wonder- 
ment and delight of his small companion who had never 
before met with this sort of a youth. 

“ Say, you’re swell ! ” he cried with enthusiasm, 


i6 


GAIL WESTON 


“ an’ you’re as pretty as Pet. I hope you are my truly 
brovver.” 

The youth smiled and flushed — he was sensitive to 
praise — and hastened to the door of the house where a 
trembling little woman stood awaiting him. 

“ It is ! — Is it ? Oh, can it be my big boy ? ” she cried, 
looking eagerly at the lifted face. “ I — I felt it. 
You walk like your father. O Theodore, you here?” 

“Just me, little mamma. Are you so glad to see 
me ? ” as she clung to him sobbing. “ Poor little 
mamma! Working for strangers while your big boy 
lives in luxury and idleness! I’m ashamed of myself. 
I have come to take you home.” 

“ Not now, dear,” she answered through her tears. 
“ I must finish my day’s work. But I’ll see you to- 
night. How came you here? Did Grandpa Weston 
give you permission? No? I thought not. I hope you 
have not endangered your future by daring his dis- 
pleasure. He is very, very cruel, but you must have 
your education and your property by and by. I fear 
you are unwise, my darling, but I love you for your 
unwisdom. I am very proud of you, my beautiful boy ! ” 
Mrs. Rollins pushed her son from her while she 
looked into his handsome, glowing face. Praise — the 
appreciation of others — always made Theodore Weston 
radiant. His mother might well be proud of what she 
saw. “ You are your father’s son ! ” she cried. “ His 
very image. O Theodore! Theodore! how I have 
missed you ! ” 

“ You shall not miss me again,” said the youth ten- 
derly. “ Drop this work and come home. I will take 
care of you after this. You shall not sew for other peo- 
ple. I am big enough now to look out for you and the 


ted's welcome 


17 

children. Mamma, where is my sister? Where is 
Gail ? Why is she not at home ? ” 

“ She is at a neighbor’s house for a little while just 
to accommodate, Theodore. Mrs. Jenkins’ girl left 
her suddenly. Don’t be angry. We must be friendly, 
you know.” 

“ I am not angry with any one but myself,” an- 
swered the boy. “ I ought to have come long ago and 
have helped you bear your burdens. I seem only just 
to have waked up to the fact that I have a mother and 
that she has burdens that I should share. Yet I am 
scarcely wide-awake. It doesn’t seem true. Mamma 
can you not introduce me to Mrs. Banscombe? I am 
sure she will excuse you for to-day at my request.” 

“ My dear son, do not think of such a thing ! ” ex- 
claimed Mrs. Rollins. “ Mrs. Banscombe is away. Has 
gone to the Harbor to spend a week and expects me to 
stay right here and finish her dress before I go home. 
The squire is to take it to her in the morning. She 
is to wear it at a family reunion. Yes, dear, I am 
coming.” This last to a girlish voice calling from the 
head of the stairs. “ Ruth does not know where I am. 
She left me in the sewing-room a moment ago. Ah ! 
So you are here, my dear. Let me introduce you to 
my son. Theodore, this is Miss Ruth Banscombe.” 

“Your son!” The hazel eyes seemed to read the 
youth through and through. “ I am happy to meet you, 
Mr. Rollins.” 

“ Not Rollins, Ruth — Weston. He is the son of my 
first husband.” 

“ Abby’s brother ! ” There was a new warmth in the 
girl’s voice. “ I am very glad to see you,” she said. 
Then, still smiling, “Come, Benny, let us have a talk 
B 


i8 


GAIL WESTON 


while your mamma is visiting with your brother. Mrs. 
Rollins the parlor is unoccupied/’ she added with 
meaning. 

“ Thank you, dear, but I dare not delay longer or 
your mamma’s dress will not be completed.” 

Ruth was already seated in a big hall chair, Ben’s 
curly head nestling to her shoulder while he showed 
her something held in his small brown hand. Theodore 
flushed as he recognized the piece of silver he had 
given the boy, and flushed still deeper a moment after 
as his eyes traveled from the little bare feet planted 
firmly on the hem of Miss Ruth’s pretty gown, to his 
own well-shod feet, his stylish summer suit, and straw 
hat. 

‘ I will see you this evening, dear,’* whispered Mrs. 
Rollins. “ Come, Ben, your brother is going.” 

“ In a minute,” chirruped Ruth. “ Benny, do you re- 
member ? ” She bent her pretty head and 

whispered something in the child’s ear. 

“ To make brave, clean, splendid men,” cried Ben 
triumphantly. 

“Good little scholar,” laughed the maiden. “You 
will make that kind of a man I know.” She placed a 
kiss among the tangled curls, said a cheery “ good-by,” 
nodded and smiled at Theodore, and stood beside Mrs. 
Rollins for a moment to watch the two depart. 

Ted Weston was not often ill at ease. He had never 
felt so awkward in his seventeen years of life as he 
did at that moment walking down the broad path with 
Benny, followed by those merry hazel eyes. 

“Is Miss Ruth the squire’s daughter? Why is she 
not with her mother ? ” he asked as the two went on. 

“ She’s goin’ wiv her farver to-morrow. She likes 


TEDS WELCOME 


19 

ridin’ wiv him an’ he likes her too. So would I if I 
was him, you bet.” 

“ What did she whisper in your ear, Ben ? ” 

“ Oh, somefin she tole me once afore. She wants me 
always to ’member it.” 

“ Is it something you can’t tell me? Is it a secret? ” 

“ She didn’t never say ’twas a secret. I tole Tom. 
He says it’s true an’ just like Ruth. She whispered, 
4 What are boys in the world for ? ’ ” 

“ And what was that you answered ? It seemed to 
please her.” 

“ I said what she tole me to say that other time. 
‘ To make brave, clean, splendid men.’ An’ she says 
I’m goin’ to be one.” 

“ You are,” said Ted with conviction. “ I wish I 
was as sure of myself.” 

“ You ! ” cried Benny in astonishment. “ Why, 
you’re stunning! You look like you was clean clear 
through an’ I guess you’re splendid enough,” eyeing 
with great satisfaction this new brother’s fine clothes. 
“ I bet you can fight too,” he added. “ You wouldn’t 
run from a feller your own size, would you ? ” 

“ Not much,” laughed Ted, “ but I fear Miss Ruth 
doesn’t mean that kind of bravery.” 

“Yes she does,” declared the small chap. “I asked 
her once an’ she said boys that couldn’t be laughed 
out’r doin’ what’s right an’ would fight for weak folks 
and stand up for the poor an’ ’bused, made brave men. 
An’ she said that’s the oney kind of men the world 
needs. I guess you’re that kind all right.” 

Theodore was silent for a moment. Then, “ She’d 
suit grandma,” he said. “ Say, Ben, where does Mrs. 
Jenkins live, the woman my sister is helping?” 


20 


GAIL WESTON 


“ On the Ridge.” 

“Take me there. Are those your best clothes, Ben?” 

“ Yep, but mower’s goin’ to make me an’ Tom some 
new pants soon’s ever she gets time, out’r some the 

squire gave her. Say, Tedore ” hesitating over the 

name. 

“ Call me Ted,” interrupted the youth. “ That’s what 
all the boys call me.” 

Benny’s eyes shone with satisfaction. “ I’m glad 
you’re my brovver,” he said enthusiastically, “ and say, 
do you always wear such nice clothes ? ” 

“ Why, yes, youngster,” laughed Ted, “ unless I want 
to help grandpa or the man with the horses or haying, 
and then I wear clean overalls with whole pantaloons 
under them. I’ve always dressed well and always have 
had all I wanted.” 

The little boy heaved an ecstatic sigh. “ It must be 
nice to be you,” he said, “ an’ I’m awful glad you b’long 
to us. Do you have lots of books ? ” 

“ All I can read.” 

“ My ! wouldn’t Tom like that ! An’ lots of money? ” 

“ Well, perhaps not lots. Not enough to waste, as 
grandpa would say, but all I need and something over. 
I think I know how to spend my surplus at present.” 

“ There’s the Jenkinses’,” cried Ben at this moment, 
“ and there’s our Abby hangin’ out clothes.” 

Ted gave a quick glance at the girl who was just dis- 
appearing through the shed door. Her appearance was 
rather disappointing. He had dreamed many dreams 
about this unknown sister, had painted her to himself 
in glowing colors. She had been named for her grand- 
mother Weston, and Theodore had always spoken and 
thought of her as “ Gail.” That was what his grand- 


ted's welcome 


21 


father called his wife when he did not call her “mo- 
ther,” or when he was not out of sorts. When in this 
latter condition he was apt to give her the benefit of 
her full title — “ Abigail.” His grandfather had never 
mentioned either his mother or sister to the boy, his 
grandmother had been slow to do so, though she had 
taught him to pray for both, and occasionally gratified 
him by a talk about the little sister from whom he had 
been parted when so young. Ted did not like the old- 
fashioned appellation, Abby; he had rather resented it 
on the lips of these new relatives when applied to his 
sister; but it did not seem so out of place when as- 
signed to the red-haired, freckled-face, moist, soap- 
sudsy damsel who presented herself to him a little later 
in the farmhouse parlor. Gail! She looked no more 
like Gail than she did like Rose or Lily ! He went out 
from the interview and down the road beside Ben quite 
speechless. 

The call had been ill-timed and the meeting unsatis- 
factory for both parties. The small girl who had an- 
swered Ted’s knock had rushed back into the house, 
leaving the callers on the door-step, while she 
announced shrilly, “ A big boy wants to see Abby.” 

Mrs. Jenkins had then come to reconnoiter and had 
shown them to the parlor, though with an unpleasant 
face, saying it was wash-day and no time for visitors. 

“ Now don’t you stay in there all day talking,” was 
her parting admonition to the little maid as she went 
from her presence. The girl’s warm face and evident 
embarrassment as she met her brother were largely due 
to the consciousness that these rough words must have 
reached his ears. Then her apron and brow were damp, 
her sleeves rolled up from sunburned arms, tiny red 


22 


GAIL WESTON 


curls clung about her abashed face. In vain she 
struggled to be free and cordial in her greeting. How 
different it all was from the meeting she had so often 
imagined when she could at last behold this darling 
brother. She had thought of him, had loved and 
prayed for him these years, yet words would not come 
to her lips now that he stood before her. His beauty, 
ease, dress, but added to her mental disturbance; then 
there were the Jenkins children peeping into the room 
and making whispered comments, and their mother 
coughing occasionally from the next room to remind 
the little servant that she was keeping an account of 
the time being wasted. 

It was relief to the girl when the youth arose to go, 
yet she went back to her drudgery with a heart all 
aglow with adoring love and pride. He was so big, 
and strong, and handsome, worthy of her heart’s best 
devotion. But how disappointed he must have been in 
her. As she passed the kitchen mirror she cast a glance 
at her face and sighed. She wished, for her brother’s 
sake, that she was as lovely as a fairy princess. It 
was so hard to disappoint him. She answered Mrs. 
Jenkins’ prying questions quietly and accepted her 
scoldings meekly for the rest of the day so full was 
her heart of a blessed surprise and joy. Her brother 
had thought of her in the midst of the luxury that 
surrounded him and had come to them. 

He had never lacked any good thing. She was so 
glad of that. He was worthy of the best. In face, 
form, bearing, voice, dress, he was perfection and — her 
brother. How rich she felt. What had he called her? 
“ Gail ! ” How sweet the word on his lips. “ Gail, 
that is the name I have always given you in my heart,” 


ted’s welcome 


23 


he had said. Oh, how blessed ! “ In his heart ” he had 
idealized her, had given a beautiful name to the vision 
of his sister that had dwelt there. How she must have 
disappointed him — she kept coming back to that fact. 
Was it not almost a pity he had seen her — had lost the 
vision he had cherished so long? But she — she would 
always hold sacred, as a precious thing, that name — his 
name for her — hold it in her heart of hearts — “ Gail.” 

All the afternoon and evening she went about as in 
a dream, not to be disturbed even by the refusal of her 
request for an hour in which to run home. He had 
come to see her because he could not wait for her to 
come to him. That was joy enough for one day surely. 
For you see our plain little Abby was in reality Theo- 
dore’s “ Gail,” a dreamer of sweet dreams as well as the 
daily liver of a beautiful life. 

Ted stopped at the hotel that night. He did not go 
to bed very early, neither did he sleep as soon as he 
went to bed. He had found everything different from 
what he had expected; everything had been disappoint- 
ing except his mother’s welcome. How she must love 
him and how cruel he had been to neglect her all these 
years. But the poverty, the children, his own duty, 
Gail — these subjects all puzzled him. How plain, how 
very plain his sister seemed ! Beauty-loving Ted found 
this the sorest trial of his visit. The rest could be 
remedied possibly, but this — he feared he could never 
love her as he had hoped he might, as he already loved 
his mother and almost loved Dolly, Alice, and Ben, and 
as he quite loved Pet. 

Tom — well, Tom was a queer stick. Ted scarcely 
knew yet what to make of him. Small boy as the youth 
considered him, he had set out to act the elder brother 


24 


GAIL WESTON 


to him, but the lad had successfully withstood all the 
stranger’s advances. Ted did not feel sure that the 
earnest-eyed boy did not despise him — he had sur- 
prised something like scorn in his eyes once that night. 
What a queer lot they were and how shabby! The 
house and furniture too! Why had not grandpa or 
grandma ever hinted at these things? Why had they 
avoided all allusion to his mother and her children ? 

What ought he to do? Anything? Well, mamma 
was to be at home to-morrow, perhaps he could come 
to some conclusion then. At last Ted drifted into 
dreamland. 


II 


PEASE PORRIDGE — PIE 

"TT must be hot/* cried a small voice. 

JL “No, cold,” interposed a very decided one. 

“ Pease porridge hot, pease porridge cold, 

Pease porridge in the pot nine days old,” 

chanted an amused third. “ How would it do to leave 
our porridge — meaning pie — until this party becomes 
unanimous? ” 

“ It’d be cold enough then, if it hadn’t spoiled,” 
declared Tom. 

“ An’ we can’t ’ford to spoil anythin’, not even cold 
pertaters,” chimed in Benny. 

“ Then I fear we shall have to decide the matter 
by arbitration,” continued the amused voice which be- 
longed to Ted who had arrived at the cottage while the 
discussion was at its height. “ Where is little mamma? 
She’ll have to serve as a committee of one and settle 
this important matter.” 

“ Who ever heard of a committee of one, Ted Wes- 
ton ? ” scoffed Dolly. “ I’ll be on it with her.” 

“ Not so fast. Miss Selfish,” broke in Tom. “ If 
any one serves with mother it ought to be me. Com- 
mittees need men and I’m the oldest boy of this family.” 

“What! When I’m around? I’m the oldest of you 
all,” laughed Ted. “ How will I do for the other mem- 
ber of the committee ? ” 


25 


26 


GAIL WESTON 


“ You won’t do at all. You’re — you’re not one of us,” 
objected Tom ungraciously. 

“ An ’sides you don’t care what way it is an’ I can’t 
eat it cold,” said Benny decidedly. 

“ I won’t eat it hot. So there, now, Ben Rollins ! ” 
cried Dolly tempestuously. “ I’ve got to make it and 
I’ll have it my way.” Ted laughed again. “ Little 
mamma,” he called, going to the hall that led to the 
attic, “ can you spare a moment from your labors to 
preside over a committee of instructions ? ” 

“ You oughtn’t to have called her, Ted,” said Dolly. 
“ She has only to-day to get the chambers ready for 
house cleaning so that I can go at them to-morrow. 
Mrs. Hopkins wants her to make Mary ’Liza’s suit, and 
next week there’s the Swans and after them the Joneses, 
so this is the only chance she’ll get. She said I might 
make a pie out of the apples left over from those she 
got from Mr. Lunt last week. It’s a treat and we were 
not to bother her about it.” 

“ An’ now she’ll be sure to have it cold so it’ll las’ 
longer,” wailed Ben, as he heard his mother’s step on 
the stairs. “ She always has thin’s so they’ll las’.” 

“ No! ” exclaimed Ted in a startled way, incredulity 
written on his face as he looked at his sister. “ It 
isn’t as bad as all that, Dolly ? ” Great, healthy boy 
that he was, Ted had decided this morning on waking 
that he had taken an altogether too serious view of 
matters the night before. 

“ Much you know about it,” was the swift reply. 
“ Because you have everything you want you imagine 
it must be the same with us. But it isn’t. I tell you we 
have to s-kir-rimp,” lengthening the objectionable word 
skilfully. “ When you have to go without ” The 


PEASE PORRIDGE — PIE 27 

sentence was cut short by the advent of a tired face and 
two faded querulous blue eyes. 

“Mamma!” Ted Weston had his arm about the 
weary woman in a trice, “ I’m sorry I called you down 
over the stairs. Forgive me. I forgot that you were 
not so strong as these youngsters here.” 

“ I do not mind.” Mrs. Rollins placed her hand 
tenderly on her big boy’s shoulder and looked fondly 
into his clear gray eyes. “ I’m sorry not to give you 
every moment of my time while you are here. I thought 
perhaps I could get through upstairs before you joined 
us. If Abby was at home I shouldn’t have this to do,” 
with a half-peevish gesture. “ But ” — smiling up into 
his face — “ it is such a treat to hear your voice I love to 
obey it.” 

Ted swallowed something big that stuck in his 
throat. “ Suppose I stay here where you can hear my 
voice all the time?” he said. “You need some one 
to take care of you and these young kids.” 

“ Don’t think of such a thing,” answered the woman 
hastily, the longing in her eyes responding to her son’s 
speech in a language that quite neutralized what fell 
from her lips. “ You must stay where you are. All 
my hopes for the future depend on your coming into 
your grandfather’s property by and by. Then we can 
be together, Theodore, if I am not in my grave, as I 
sometimes think I shall be by then. It is hard to live 
as I do, working, working all the time and never 
getting anywhere.” 

“ Let us have the pie as Theodore likes it best,” said 
Mrs. Rollins when Benny impatiently brought her back 
to the great question of the hour. 

“ No. As mamma likes it best,” cried Ted. 


28 


GAIL WESTON 


“ But I don’t care for it at all,” protested the lady, 
conscious of how few were the apples and how many 
the children. “ I have pie every day when I work out.” 

“ You like it cold, doesn’t you, Ted? ” questioned Pet, 
slipping her soft hand into the youth’s. “ Dolly and me 
likes it cold too.” 

“ An’ I like it hot,” blubbered Ben, on the verge of 
tears. 

“Will you let me settle it?” asked Ted. “Whoever 
will, please raise the right hand.” 

Pet raised both of hers not being sure which was the 
right one. Dolly, Alice, and mamma followed. “ As 
if I cared all that!” cried Tom loftily, as Benny re- 
luctantly lifted his little brown paw. 

“ ’Course nobody’d be mean enough to have it cold 
after a feller voted for him,” observed this small 
philosopher. 

Ted laughed. “You sit down, little mamma,” he 
said swinging the patchwork-covered rocking-chair 
around and seating her. “ Now Dolly and Allie will 
repair to the kitchen and fix this thing up. I promise 
that you shall all be satisfied.” So saying, Ted flung 
open the kitchen door, and putting an arm about each 
of his half-sisters, drew them through it. 

“ Make two pies, Dolly,” he said somewhat per- 
emptorily as soon as the door between the two rooms 
was closed. “ Bake one right off for those who like it 
cold. The other can be baked the last thing before 
dinner. Allie and I will peel the apples while you make 
the crust.” 

“ And where are we to get apples enough for two 
pies ? ” asked Dolly, whisking a basket from the closet. 
“Here are all there are left.” 


PEASE PORRIDGE — PIE 


2 9 


Ted looked into the basket and whistled. “ I’ll go 
and buy some/’ he said. “ What else are you going to 
have fof dinner besides the pie ? ” 

Alice lifted troubled blue eyes and looked at her 
sister, but Dolly did not come to the rescue. “ Bread 

and — and ” began the older girl stammering and 

flushing, “ and I think we have a few potatoes.” 

“ But the meat. Have you no meat ? ” 

His sister shook her head. “We have meat Sundays 
— sometimes,” she answered slowly. 

The boy looked horrified. “ Where’s the nearest 
butcher’s shop ? ” he asked abruptly, as Alice seated 
herself to pare apples. 

“ Oh, ever so far — a mile down the Harbor road — too 
far to go on foot. Don’t try it, Ted, and don’t — don’t 
spend your money on — on anything. Your grandpa’s 
money, I mean,” cried Alice incoherently. 

Ted drew a chair to his sister’s side and took the 
apple from her hand. “ I will peel,” he said, “ while 
you tell me all about it, Allie; just why you are with- 
out so many things? It isn’t curiosity that prompts my 
question, you know that, don’t you? I did not know, 
I never dreamed mamma was so poor, had to work so 
hard ” 

“ And why should you know now ? What good will 
it do ? ” Allie’s lips trembled, Dolly’s curled. 

“ I’ll tell you how it happened that I came home, 
girls,” Ted explained. * I was to spend this vacation 
with a chum — I and another fellow, but the other fel- 
low was called home suddenly by sickness in the family. 
I hated to go off without him and hung around school 
until a day or two ago he wrote me that his mother was 
gaining fast and he’d be with me in another week if I’d 


30 


GAIL WESTON 


wait. I did not know what to do with the time — that’s 
a fact/’ the youth’s clear cheek flushed ; “ and Rob 
Thompson’s talk about his mother set me thinking of 
my own. It seemed a good chance to run down and 
see her, so I dropped a card to grandpa telling him not 
to worry if he did not hear from me for a week or two, 

and another to Rob saying I’d meet him at X next 

Wednesday, and here I am.” 

“ Did you tell your grandfather you were coming 
here ? ” 

“No; but I’ll tell him about it when I see him. 
When I left my bag at the hotel yesterday and walked 
up here I hadn’t the slightest idea of mamma’s circum- 
stances. I had never considered them. Being well 
fixed myself I took it for granted that she was. I 
didn’t know she had any children except Gail and my- 
self. It troubles me to find her so thin and careworn, 

and as for Gail ” he hesitated, then added slowly, 

“ I hope she will come home to-night, as mamma 
thinks.” 

“ You needn’t think any such thing,” said Dolly, as 
she rubbed the shortening into flour. “ ‘ Mamma,’ as 
you call her, says lots of things she doesn’t mean. You 
needn’t look so shocked and Alice needn’t shake her 
head at me. Mother knows as well as I do old Marm 
Jenkins won’t let Abby off while there’s a bit of day- 
light to work in, and after that she’ll say it is too 
late to go visiting. She’s an old screw and intends to 
get her money’s worth.” 

“ But mamma said,” began Ted. 

“ Yes, ‘ mamma said,’ ” mimicked the girl impatiently, 
“ that Abby went up to the Jenkinses’ just for a little 
while to oblige them because their girl had left them 


PEASE PORRIDGE — PIE 


31 


suddenly. Don’t I know how she talks, how she fools 
herself and tries to fool others with her fables. Abby 
went up there because they pay her seventy-five cents a 
week and her board, and her month’s wages will get 
the boys shoes. There’s not a whole shoe between 
them and Pet’s are about gone too. You needn’t look 
so distressed. We’re used to getting on without things, 
and as for mother, why, perhaps she thinks what she 
says is true — Abby and Allie try to believe that she 
does — and I don’t say she doesn’t. She sort of 
makes herself believe such trash. Perhaps it helps her 
to stand things; but I believe in facing facts and al- 
ways have. ‘ Gail,’ your sister, is nothing more or less 
than a servant washing dirty clothes and dirty faces for 
a living. But as far as that goes, we’re all servants. 
‘ Mamma/ ” Dolly used Ted’s very tone as she uttered 
the word, “ does anything she can find to do in making 
and mending clothes; Tom weeds gardens and drives 
cows; even Ben runs on errands; while Abby and 
Allie and I wash, and scrub, and cook at home and 
take turns in trying to get a little schooling. Every 
member of this family works for a living except Pet — 
and you. She is a baby, you a — gentleman.” 

Dolly could be very disagreeable at times. Both of 
her listeners flushed as this speech closed, though each 
for a different reason. 

“ If you’ll please show me the wood-pile, I’ll build the 
fire before I go out, Allie,” said Ted soberly, ignoring 
Dolly. 

“ You needn’t,” interfered this last-named individual, 
refusing to be ignored. “We have no wood-pile, but 
we have other resources and Tom knows what they 
are. If you have finished your work as committeeman 


32 


GAIL WESTON 


and will relieve this kitchen of your presence, I’ll see 
that the fire is made and the pie baked.” 

“ Dolly, you are saucy,” said Ted sharply. " But 
what else can I expect when you speak as you do of 
mamma ? ” Alice looked troubled, but Dolly tossed her 
head and sneered. 

“ Who gave you the right to reprimand me ? ” she 
asked sarcastically. “ Or is it one of the inalienable 
rights of a gentleman ? ” 

“ Doll, stop, or I’ll call mother,” cried Alice roused 
for once. “ I’m sure Ted is very kind. He isn’t used 
to our ways and can’t be expected to understand them.” 
But Ted had disappeared. 

His mother was no longer in the rocker, she had gone 
back to her work. He threw himself into the chair 
and dropped his head on his hand. Tom glanced up 
from his book with wondering eyes, Benny sought his 
side. The little fellow rubbed one small hand up and 
down the cloth of Ted’s jacket and presently placed it 
on the youth’s cheek. Its soft clinging warmth was a 
caress in itself. Ted caught it in his own and, donning 
his hat, still holding the little palm close, went out. 
“ We’ll take a walk,” he said. 

The child kept looking up to the face above his as 
he walked. He had been afraid awhile ago that this 
new brother was going to cry. Ted had not thought of 
tears, but he had been tempted to go back to his grand- 
parents and forget all about these new relations. 
Dolly’s taunts had cut. He felt ashamed of his clothes, 
his schooling, his leisure, himself. Yet it was by no 
fault of his that he had received so much more than 
his mother’s other children. 

“ Ben,” he said with a sudden assumption of gaiety, 


PEASE PORRIDGE PIE 


33 


as he caught one of the small boy’s sympathetic 
glances, “ why do you and the girls look like mamma 
and have such curly hair, while Tom’s face is quite 
homely and his hair sticks up like bristles all over his 
head?” 

“ Dunno,” replied the little fellow, immediately for- 
getting his solicitude for his companion in studying 
the conundrum he had propounded. “ P’raps ’cause 
he’s like farver. But mower says we don’t look like 
her oney A 1 lie. I take after Uncle John, mower’s 
brovver.” 

“And where is Uncle John? Why haven’t I heard 
of him, I wonder.” 

“ He’s nowheres that anybody knows. He runned 
away from home when he was a boy. Dolly says she’d 
run away too, if she was a boy ’cause we’re so poor. 
But Abby says 4 oney cowards run away from hard 
fings.’ ” 

“ I guess that’s right. It sounds a lot like what Miss 
Ruth told about bravery, doesn’t it ? ” 

“Yes,” assented Benny. “Tom says Ruth and our 
Abby are a lot alike.” 

Ted shook his head and said, “ Not much.” There 
was very little likeness to his mind between the two. 

“ Ruth doesn’t fink she’s like our Abby eiver,” volun- 
teered Ben. “ She says she breaks the tenth command- 
ment every day ’cause she wants so much to be like her. 
She tole me when I said the commandments for her.” 

Ted screwed up his lips as if about to whistle, but no 
sound came. “Why do you suppose she wants to be 
like — Abby ? ” he asked. 

“ I s’pect it’s ’cause she’s so good. Tom says there’s 
nobody like her in the world. But Dolly doesn’t want 
C 


34 


GAIL WESTON 


to be like her. She says she’d rather die than have 
to be so good.” 

“ Very likely,” said Ted dryly. “ Dolly will not 
grow .wings right off. How does Miss Ruth happen 
to know Ab — Abby so well ? ” 

“ Abby’s her Sunday-school teacher.” 

“Not Miss Banscombe’s Sunday-school teacher?” 
incredulously. 

“ No, not Mis’ Banscombe’s. She doesn’t go to 
Sunday-school — an’ the squire don’t eiver. It’s oney 
Ruth that goes.” 

“ Why, Miss Ruth must be as old as my sister.” 

“ No, she’s oney fifteen an’ Abby’s ’mos’ sixteen. 
Abby says Ruth ought to be in Mrs. Hawkes’s class — 
she’s our minister’s wife — but Ruth won’t go. She 
won’t go to Sunday-school ’less she can be in Abby’s 
class. Her farver doesn’t care if she does stay at home 
from Sunday-school, an’ our mower doesn’t care much. 
Tom wouldn’t go if it wasn’t for Abby.” 

“You and Tom seem to think a good deal of my 
sister,” said Ted with a twinge of jealousy. 

“ She’s our sister too. We’ve always had her an’ you 
haven’t. Tom said so las’ night. Tom couldn’t live 
’thout her. He says the house wouldn’t be fit to live in. 
When mower scolds her Tom gets mad ’less she puts 
her hand on his shoulder quick. Then he shuts his 
lips hard an’ — an’ goes out.” 

“ Tom’s quite a fellow.” 

“ Yes. He’s a * geen-us,’ Abby says so. She says 
we’ll be proud ’cause he’s our brovver some day. Did 
you ever see a * geen-us ’ before, Ted? ” 

“Never,” answered Ted dryly, “but I’ve heard of 
them. What makes Tom a genius?” 


PEASE PORRIDGE — PIE 


35 


“ Dunno. P’raps he’s like farver, oney Tom’s goin’ 
to have a chance, an’ farver didn’t. That’s what Abby 
says.” 

“ And does what Abby says always come true? ” 

“Yes, always. She knows eberythin’ an’ she’s not 
afraid of anythin’. She kept holt of farver’s hand 
when he died an’ wasn’t afraid. Mower ran out in 
the shed an’ cried, an’ so did Pet, an’ Allie, an’ me. 
Dolly went over to Mrs. Jones’s, an’ Tom hid his face 
on the old lounge, an’ Abby was all alone when the 
angels come for him. They took him to heaven, you 
know, an’ Abby wasn’t scared. Would you ’a’ been 
scared, Ted?” 

“ I’m afraid I would.” 

“Well, she wasn’t, ’cause I asked her an’ she said 
‘ no.’ But there was tears in her eyes when she came 
out an’ put her arms round mower. She put Pet an’ 
me to bed an’ tole us farver’s pain was all gone, an’ 
next day we went in wiv her an’ kissed him. But 
Tom never looked at him at all, but lay wiv his face hid 
on the lounge all that night an’ Abby sat by him an’ 
held his hands. He couldn’t cry, an’ he couldn’t talk 
or eat, an’ mower fought he was goin’ to die too. 
But he didn’t. Did you know we had two farvers in 
heaven now? The great big Farver we pray to, an’ 
the other one we don’t pray to; an’ the one we pray 
to takes care of the other one; an’ some day we will 
see them bofe ? ” 

“ Yes,” said Ted gently, quite subdued by this talk. 

“ I have two fathers in heaven too, and ” He did 

not finish the sentence aloud, but in his heart he added, 
“ and I’m not worthy of either of them.” 

The walk and the talk made the youth feel better and 


3 ^ 


GAIL WESTON 


in a kindlier spirit toward Dolly. When he and Ben 
returned somewhat later, riding with the storeman — a 
great basket of provisions with them — they were both 
very jolly. 

“ Now for such a dinner as we dream about but 
seldom eat/’ cried Ted as he invaded the precincts 
of the kitchen once more. “ If you girls need assist- 
ance I am at your service, and when you get ready for 
the beefsteak I’ll broil it. Lovisy says I can broil 
steak almost as well as she can. Tell me where the 
butter-jar is. Do you know I’d have forgotten the 
butter entirely if it hadn’t been for Ben — we always 
make our own at home. That roast is for to-morrow. 
Just slip it on the ice, Dolly.” 

“ Next winter, when the yard’s full of it, do you 
mean ? ” laughed Dolly quite in a tremor of delight 
over the abundance piled upon chair and table and 
ashamed of her late temper. “Ted Rollins — I mean 
Weston — are you a prince with a bottomless purse, 
or a fairy ? ” 

“ Neither,” laughed Ted. I’m a brother and you 
owe me a kiss, Dolly, for being so cross awhile ago, 
and another for not inviting me to dinner the first 
day I came to see you. You’re as pretty as a picture 
when you blush like that. Isn’t she, Allie ? ” 

“She’s pretty enough when she’s good-natured,” an- 
swered Alice. “ When she’s cross it spoils everything.” 

“I won’t be cross again to-day. O Ted, are those 
bananas? How did you know I was dying for a 
banana ? ” 

“ My fairy instincts are responsible,” smiled Ted 
peeling a big beauty. “ Sit down and eat this at once, 
Dolly. You’re too precious to lose when you’re good. 


PEASE PORRIDGE — PIE 


37 


I suppose mamma’s up in that old attic again. I wish 
she needn’t know a thing about this dinner till it was 
on the table and she was called down. Wouldn’t her 
surprise be worth while?” 

“ She’d faint,” said Dolly, her mouth full of banana. 

“ She’d scold,” said Allie, “ because you’ve spent all 
this money on us.” 

“ Not she,” contradicted Dolly. “ If it was one of 
us she would. She’d think we ought to have given her 
the money to dole out since she could make it go 
farther. But seeing it’s ‘ Theodore ’ it’ll be all right. 
She may shake her head at him, but she’ll adore him all 
the same and would whatever he might do. Not that 
I’m at all jealous of you, sir,” catching Ted’s eyes. 
“ She can pet you all she pleases if you’ll give us our 
share back again. Can’t she, Allie ? ” blushing furiously 
under her brother’s merry glance. 

“ A bargain,” he cried, “ and more than easy — 
delightful ! I’m going to dress you up, Dolly, and 
put you in the parlor to look at.” 

Mrs. Rollins shook her head when she looked at the 
loaded dinner-table, as Dolly had predicted. She 
smiled adoringly at her son likewise, which the girl 
had also predicted. Ted immediately beamed at Dolly, 
who nudged Allie, bidding her in a stage whisper to 
“ look up and get her share of the petting going on,” 
to the complete upsetting of the big brother’s gravity. 
Pet was dumb with astonishment when her high-chair 
was drawn up before such unusual bounty, and even 
Tom opened his eyes in wonderment. Benny’s delight 
was unbounded. He was fairly bursting with im- 
portance. 

“Isn’t this swell ? ” he questioned, waving one grimy 


GAIL WESTON 


38 

hand over the table. “ It takes Ted an’ me to do things. 
Doesn’t it, Ted?” 

“ You bet,” answered Ted boy fashion, happy as the 
happiest. His mother’s eyes were lifted quickly. She 
did not expect such an expression from the lips of her 
gentlemanly son. But Tom thought, “ he’s not such a 
cad after all,” and relaxed a little from the attitude of 
jealous suspicion which he had taken from the first 
toward this stranger. 

“If Gail were only here this dinner would be 
perfect,” said Ted presently. Ben’s innocent chatter 
about his sister had set him longing for her again. 
Perhaps she wasn’t so awfully plain after all. He had 
seen her under unpropitious conditions. He felt 
ashamed of the almost regret he found in his heart 
that one of these fairer-faced girls was not his own 
sister. 

“ ‘ Gail ’ ! ” echoed Dolly, while Tom shot a really 
pleased glance across the table. “ That name sounds 
so funny. Doesn’t it, Allie ? ” 

Ted flushed. “ It’s the only name I’ve known her 
by,” he said, “and lots prettier than Abby. You see 
I’ve thought and thought of her, being the only sister 
I had — I didn’t know about any of you then — and there 
didn’t seem to be any name in the world quite good 
enough for her.” 

Tom eyed the speaker with growing interest. 

“ It bothers me to hear you call her Abby. I don’t 
like it,” the youth went on. “ Grandma’s name is 
Abigail and grandpa generally calls her ‘ Gail.’ She 
is so beautiful and good I liked to think my sister had 
her name. ‘ My little sister Gail.’ That is how I’ve 
thought of her,” his voice dropping tenderly, “ and 


PEASE PORRIDGE — PIE 


39 


when a fellow has dreamed about a sister ten years 
under one name it isn’t easy for him to call her by 
another.” 

“No need that you should,” commented Tom. 
“ Gail’s good enough and pretty enough for anybody.” 

“It’s too pretty for Abby. Isn’t it, mother?” asked 
Dolly. 

“ For what you see of her, perhaps,” muttered Tom. 

“ For what anybody sees of her,” replied his sister 
severely. “ However good Abby may be — I’m not 
denying her goodness — she’s ” 

“ Better not while I’m around.” This from Tom, 
still under his breath. 

“ She’s no beauty,” finished Dolly serenely. 

“ Children why will you quarrel so ? ” exclaimed 
Mrs. Rollins peevishly. “ Theodore has not seen his 
sister since they parted as babies and it’s very nice of 
him to think of her kindly and to give her such a 
pretty name. Beauty’s only skin deep and one can’t 
help being what they are. If I’d thought of it I’d have 
called her Gail myself. I’m sure it’s much more genteel 
in sound than Abby. I named her for her grandma in 
full, Abigail Sercross, and to please Aunt Hannah Ser- 
cross — your grandma’s sister, Ted — who, though an 
old maid, adopted a little girl and named her for her 
sister. I thought surely Abby’d come into money be- 
tween them. Your Aunt Hannah’s adopted child died 
about the time Alice was born and I made sure then 
she’d adopt Abby in her place, seeing she had the same 
name. But no, that wouldn’t have been my luck. 
Hannah Sercross cleared off out West and I’ve not 
seen or heard of her since.” 

“ Lucky for this family,” quoth Tom. 


40 


GAIL WESTON 


“ An’ for Ruth,” piped Benny. “ Ruth says she’s 
oney half a girl wivout our Abby.” 

“ Ruth Banscombe is beautiful,” said Alice, bringing 
the conversation back to its original theme. 

“ Some other folks might be too, if they had her 
clothes,” said her sister Dolly with a toss of her 
shapely head. 

“ Ruth would be beautiful in any dress,” persisted 
Alice. “ You’d say so if you could see her, Ted.” 

“ I did see her yesterday.” 

“What did you think of her?” Dolly looked a 
little anxiously at her new brother. She was vain 
of what beauty she possessed and liked his praise. 

“ She is very lovely. I imagine she is good too.” 

“ She is,” said Alice with unusual warmth. 

“ Who couldn’t be good with nothing to vex them, 
servants to wait on them, and everything in the world 
to enjoy? ” 

“ I’ve known people who had all that and yet were 
not very good,” said Ted seriously. 

“ And I know one person who has nothing of all 
that and yet is very good,” added Tom quickly. 
“ Better than Ruth Banscombe.” 

“ He means Abby — or Gail — if you please,” cried 
Dolly, her nose in the air. 

“That isn’t fair, Tom. Ruth is as good as she 
can be, and you know it,” said Alice. 

“ I’m not denying it,” persisted Tom. “ I only say 
that some one else is better, and I do mean Abby.” 

“ Don’t be tiresome, Tom,” said his mother irrita- 
bly. “ If a person is good that’s enough. This talk 
about better and worse is silly. Ruth is good and Abby 
is good. That’s all that can be said.” 


PEASE PORRIDGE — PIE 


41 


“How can it be all that can be said,” asked Tom 
perversely, “if what Doll says is true? Ruth has 
everything that people prize, money ” 

“ And clothes,” interjected Dorothea. 

“ And beauty,” added Alice. 

“ And with all these she manages to be good,” 

proceeded Tom dryly. “ While Abby ” he hesitated 

with set lips. 

“ Has nothing at all,” supplied his twin. 

“ Not so fast,” said Tom. “ She has something worth 
all you have yet mentioned — she has brains.” 

“ Indeed ! ” gasped Dolly. 

“ And heart,” continued Tom, “ and a conscience that 
has spared you often enough Doll, and a will to work 
as all of us know.” Ted began to clap his hands softly 
at this speech, but Tom did not seem to notice it. “ Is 
that pie hot, A1 ? ” he asked brusquely. 

“No; but there’s one just ready. Ted ordered two 
that everybody might be satisfied.” 

Mrs. Rollins gave her oldest an appreciative 
look. “ It was very thoughtful of you, Theodore,” she 
said. 

“ It was for a fact,” admitted Tom. 

“ Ted does everything nice,” chimed in Benny. “ He’s 
good too, ain’t you, Ted?” Ted was glad that the 
laugh that followed this question made an answer 
unnecessary. 

It was early, only a little after eight o’clock, when he 
bade the girls good-night and prepared to go to the 
hotel. He felt this new life a trifle slow. His mother 
followed him to the door. “ It seems very inhospitable 
to send you away to sleep, Theodore,” she said. “ But 
we have no place fit to put you.” 


42 


GAIL WESTON 


“ You make me too much of a stranger, mamma,” 
was his reply. “What is good enough for you ought 
to be good enough for your son.” 

“ Here’s Abby,” cried Alice, and there was a rush of 
feet as the younger children hurried to meet the 
new-comer. But Ted was ahead of them all. From the 
window Tom watched him as he reached his sister’s 
side. He heard his solicitous “ You are all out of 
breath, Gail.” 

“Yes, I hurried; it was so late before I got started. 
I did not want to miss you altogether.” 

Tom wondered at the ease, the grace with which Ted 
led the girl to the house and seated her, gently remov- 
ing her hat. “You are tired. Let me wait on you a 
little,” he answered to her shy remonstrance, and Tom 
caught the almost adoring look that responded to the 
words. A fierce pang smote the watcher’s heart. This 
fellow with all his pretty ways, did not, could not care 
for her as he did. Yet he had never shown her any 
such little attentions. 

As the brother and sister talked together — the girl 
still with that half-embarassment, the youth in a free 
and easy manner which was yet all attention — Tom 
noticed that, in spite of his apparent carelessness, the 
stranger was regarding his companion with the keenest 
interest, studying her every movement, every feature 
every curve of her face. The boy fancied too, that he 
could detect an almost contempt of the girl’s appear- 
ance in those handsome gray eyes, and hated their 
owner cordially because he so fancied. He wished at 
that moment that Abby was fair, as beautiful as she 
was good, and despised himself heartily the next for 
so wishing. No — he would not have one hair of her 


PEASE PORRIDGE — PIE 43 

head changed if he could; not a freckle of her face 
removed. She was all he desired just as she was. 

The clock striking nine brought Abby out of the 
sweet dream in which she had been indulging while 
she watched her brother’s face, listened to his voice. 
“Nine o’clock so soon!” shk cried. “I must go. I 
promised not to be late.” 

Ted arose when his sister did, taking his hat as she 
put hers on. Tom’s eyes followed them up the road. 
He noted the young man’s bent head, the earnestness 
with which he seemed to be listening to the maiden’s 
every word. 

“ It seems good to have a sister,” said Ted presently, 
“ and a shame to have so little of her now I am here. 
Do you know, Gail, that the desire to see your face 
was the strongest attraction that drew me here? Sup- 
pose you come home for the rest of this week.” 

How grateful the glance that met the youth’s; how 
sweet the voice that made reply. Ted began to realize 
something of his sister’s peculiar charm. “ It isn’t 
possible,” she said, ‘ but I like to have you want me. 
I was afraid you would forget that you had a sister.” 

“ How could I ? I had only one. The wonder is 
that you have thought of me with Tom and Ben, to 
say nothing of the girls, to love.” 

“ Love is different from other things,” she answered 
quickly. “ There’s always enough of it to go around, 
you know, and we never have to stop loving one person 
in order to love another. I suppose that’s the reason 
the Bible says, ‘ God is love.’ We all can have all we 
want of him without robbing one another.” 

The eyes lifted to Ted’s had a peculiar glow in their 
depths that impressed him as quite uncommon, yet 


44 


GAIL WESTON 


there was something about their soft radiance that was 
familiar too. He was quiet a moment then : “ I hope 
you do not feel as Dolly does, Gail, that I have been 
cruel and cold-hearted in neglecting you so long.” 

“Oh, no! You owed first duty to grandpa and 
grandma. They took you for their own and you are 
all they have. It was a great surprise to see you 
yesterday. I had not dreamed of such a possibility.” 
The girl’s voice suggested how altogether too pleasant 
a thing it was to have been expected. Ted felt flattered 
and humbled. 

“I’m a pretty selfish fellow,” he confessed frankly. 
“ In all these years — until a few days ago — I have not 
so much as thought of visiting or even writing to you 
or mamma.” 

“ How did it happen now ? I’ve wondered that 
grandpa would let you come.” 

“ He had nothing to do with it and doesn’t know I’m 
here,” acknowledged the youth, a sense of shame bring- 
ing the flush to his cheeks as he recounted the cir- 
cumstances that had led to his visit. For some reason it 
was not so easy to tell this story to Gail as it had been 
to tell it to Dolly. “ What do you say to that ? ” he 
ended. 

“ I fear you have made a mistake,” she replied 
gently. 

“ By coming home ? Hasn’t a boy a right to visit 
his own mother and sister?” 

“ Sometimes we have to yield what seems a right in 
order to be right,” was the quiet response. 

“ What do you mean ? ” 

“ Something I have learned for myself,” she an- 
swered in a low, earnest tone. “ I’ve often felt I 


PEASE PORRIDGE — PIE 


45 


had a right to that which, after all, I could not claim 
and be right. If you had been quite sure you were 
right in coming here would you not have written 
grandpa that you were coming? Would it have been 
more than simple courtesy to have done so? to have 
asked his permission? While he feeds and clothes and 
educates you, are you not under his authority? Do 
you not owe him obedience?” These rapid questions 
were asked timidly, almost hesitatingly. 

“ Much good it would have done to ask grandpa’s 
permission. I was sure if I did he would say no. I 
was just as sure that I had a right to visit my mother.” 

“ At grandpa’s expense ? ” 

The youth flushed hotly at this question. “ The 
money I have used is my own,” he said. “ It was given 
to me.” 1 

“ To do what you pleased with ? ” The voice en- 
treated pardon for what it still dared to ask. 

“ To make my vacation enjoyable. This was the way 
I wished to enjoy part of it.” 

The girl sighed softly. “ I am so glad to have you,” 
she said, placing a gentle hand on his arm, “that I 
cannot bear to hurt you. It was beautiful in you to 
want to come, but — but I could better miss your face, 
and I can never tell you what a joy it has been to see 
it” — a catch in the soft voice — “than to have you 
offend your conscience even a little bit. Perhaps you 
didn’t think — I’m sure you didn’t — but grandpa sent 
you your money that you might enjoy your vacation 
in a way that he had already considered and approved ; 
not after a fashion of which he knew nothing and 
which, I fear, he would never approve.” 

She stopped in the road and looked up into the 


46 


GAIL WESTON 


handsome face beseechingly. “ Don’t be angry/’ she 
whispered. “ I love you so much I can’t bear to have 
you angry with me, or — or have you less than the 
best boy in the world — brave and good.” 

“ I am far from the best,” answered the youth, 
touched by her earnestness and humility. “ I am 
neither good nor brave.” 

“Ah, but it is brave to admit you are not,” she 
cried. Then she added, “ I must leave you here. The 
house is around the corner and I am late.” 

“ And I have seen so little of you and have been 
nothing but a disappointment to you ! ” exclaimed her 
brother catching at her hands and holding her a 
moment. 

“ ‘ A disappointment ’ ! You ! How can you imagine 
it? A joy, an inspiration, a delight! O Ted, it’s 
lovely to be handsome and bright and gifted; to have 
splendid opportunities. It makes me glad just to look 
at you.” 

“ Then you’re not really sorry to have seen me, 
Gail?” 

“How can I be?” 

“ Even though it was disobedience that brought you 
the sight ? ” 

The girl threw her arms about his neck and clung 
to him. “ I must have you good first — good above all 
things,” she whispered. 

“ I shall be the better for this night as long as I live,” 
he answered, touched. “ Promise always to love me 
and think the best of me possible, Gail.” 

“ That’s easy,” she laughed, tears in her eyes. “ You 
have always been, and always will be, the dearest thing 
in my life.” She lifted her lips to his, placed a double 


PEASE PORRIDGE — PIE 


47 


kiss on them, and before he had realized she was gone, 
he stood alone, a tear — a sister’s tear — on the hand he 
had stretched out to detain her. 

He walked to his hotel very soberly; he was rather 
subdued during the remaining two days of his stay, 
much to Tom’s wonderment. Dolly openly lamented 
the change. 

Ruth Banscombe spent the evening before his 
departure at the cottage. 

“ Isn’t he handsome ? ” whispered Dolly to the 
maiden at the evening’s close, as they stood for a few 
moments alone while Ruth pinned on her hat before 
the kitchen mirror. 

“ Very,” was the satisfactory reply. 

“ Abby was here the other evening and he walked 
home with her just as he is going to walk home with 
you. You should have seen her face when he proposed 
it. She’s just as vain of him as she can be.” 

“ Of course,” assented Ruth, “ and it’s a shame that 
after waiting for and loving him these years, as she 
has, she shouldn’t have had every bit of him while he 
was here,” resentfully. 

“ So it was, but — well, I’m not sure he feels real 
sorry about it. Any one can see with half an eye that 
he’s disappointed in her.” 

“ Disappointed in Abby ! ” The young girl turned 
indignantly to face the accuser. 

“ In Gail, if you please. If she isn’t beautiful he 
insists that her name shall be. Even ‘ mamma ’ — as he 
calls mother — defers to him in this. We all call her 
Gail.” 

“ It’s a beautiful name and fits her, but he — I’m 
very, very angry with him. What can he find fault 


48 


GAIL WESTON 


with in her? How does he dare be disappointed in 
her?” 

“ You’d better ask him,” laughed Dolly. “ None of 
us care to, but we all see it. You should hear Tom go 
on about it.” 

“ I should like to hear Tom and like to help him too, 
if it’s true,” answered the maiden. 

Ted exerted himself to be agreeable as he and Miss 
Ruth walked up over the hill, but his companion was 
/ too preoccupied to enjoy his conversation. That any- 
body should be disappointed in her friend was bad 
enough, but that this young man — Abby’s brother — 
should be so was unbearable. Did Abby guess it ? Her 
heart throbbed indignantly as she put the query to it. 
She would find out how he felt — even if she had to 
do as Dolly suggested, ask him — and he should learn 
her opinion of a young man who could not appreciate 
such a sister. Her home was in sight when she came 
to this conclusion and began her investigation. 

“ I hope you are not sorry you came to Greenville, 
Mr. Weston?” she said. 

“No.” Ted’s negative was not the heartiest in the 
world. He had found the last two days almost in- 
tolerable. 

“ Of course it has been a disappointment not to see 
more of your sister?” 

“Yes.” Ted said this more heartily, though with 
the saying came a vision of the moist little maid who 
had greeted him in Mrs. Jenkins’ dreary parlor — the 
one vision of his sister ever uppermost in his mind. 

“ But it must be a pleasure to have seen her at all ; 
well worth coming to Greenville for. There are not 
many girls like Ab— Gail.” 


PEASE PORRIDGE — PIE 49 

“Not any like her, I should say, judging from the 
way you all value her, Miss Ruth.” 

“ Not any like her, you are right. She is so patient, 
so unselfish, so beautiful ! ” enthusiastically. “ Have 
you noticed her eyes? how lovely they are? how they 
shine?” 

“ Yes,” answered Ted in a relieved tone, “ Gail’s eyes 
are very beautiful. I have noticed that.” 

“ Yours are the same color,” went on the young girl 
in an approving voice, “though they are not so large 
nor so deep. Hers are very deep, they go down clear 
to her heart and it is oceans deep. I admire her very 
much. Of course you do ? ” 

The young man’s “ yes ” was very unsatisfactory this 
time. 

“ Of course I mean herself, not her appearance,” ex- 
plained Miss Banscombe loftily, “ though I wouldn’t 
change that the least bit if I could. There is her hair, 
for instance, it’s perfect; it just crowns her; and those 
dear little rings that will creep out to cluster about her 

forehead, as if they loved it, they are ” she hesitated 

for the right word. 

“ Red,” prompted Ted unconsciously and to his great 
confusion, as his companion wheeled around in the 
road and stopped before him. 

“ ‘ Red ’ ! ” she cried, “ do you call her hair red ? You 
must be color-blind. It is auburn and will be so dark 
in a few years that only the sun will reveal the glow in 
it; it’s sure to be her pride some day.” 

Ted did not answer this outburst, he felt silence 
to be the better part of valor as they went on and 
presently drew up before the squire’s mansion. 

“ Dolly tells me you are disappointed in your 
D 


50 


GAIL WESTON 


sister, Mr. Weston/’ Ruth said then, facing him in the 
clear moonlight. ‘ I aon’t believe it ; I don’t want to 
believe it. I like you; I want you to be likable; but I 
should despise you if I thought you could be disap- 
pointed in Ab — Gail.” 

Ted knew he was being not only catechised but 
weighed in the balance, yet he did not answer her 
tacit questioning immediately. He was too conscious, 
as he looked at the fresh loveliness she revealed, of the 
heavy disappointment at his heart. When he did speak 
it was humbly: 

“ You will have to despise me, Miss Ruth,” he said. 
“ I despise myself.” 

The young girl did not extend her hand to him in 
good-by, neither did she lecture him as he had half 
expected. She laughed instead. “You’re nothing but 
a boy,” she said, “ a big boy. Perhaps when the man 
in you develops he may have a keener sense of values. 
I’m sorry for you.” 

There was a mocking note in the girlish voice that 
wounded Ted’s pride. He lifted his hat and turned 
away crestfallen. He recalled the question she had put 
to Benny, and the answer she had taught him, and was 
sure she had forever branded him coward. 

Next day he bought shoes for the boys and Pet, the 
ribbon he had promised Dolly, and enough muslin to 
make Alice a new dress. He left a banknote in his 
mother’s hand at his departure. He dared not purchase 
anything for Gail with his grandfather’s money, but 
he thought she might buy something for herself with 
what she had earned if these other needs were met. 

“ I’m sorry not to have more to give you, mamma,” 
he said to Mrs. Rollins at parting. 


PEASE PORRIDGE — PIE 


51 


“ You have been very generous, Theodore,” was her 
response. “ I fear you have robbed yourself, you have 
spent so much on us.” 

“ Never fear. I have saved enough to get along until 
my next allowance arrives and it will be larger than 
common. It’s of you I think. I feel wicked to be going 
off for a nice time while you and Gail work so hard.” 

“We are used to it.” Mrs. Rollins sighed and her 
lips drooped in a manner he had noticed on several 
occasions. “ You must not let anything come between 
you and your good times, or between you and your 
grandfather. Some day you may be able to make up 
all our loss to us if you are wise. I keep myself from 
despair by remembering that you will have plenty of 
money and can do as you please with it before many 
more years.” 

So his mother dismissed him. 


Ill 

tom's ambition 


ED had been gone about ten days when Abby 



i came home one Saturday night, her small bundle 
of clothes in her hand. The sky was yet bright and the 
children still lingered at the supper-table though her 
mother was sewing at a window. 

“ You’re not all through, Abby,” exclaimed this lady 
anxiously, spying her daughter’s bundle. 

“ Mrs. Jenkins has hired a stronger girl, a woman 
from the poor-farm,” was the reply. “ I’m sorry, 
mother, but I’m not to blame, I did the best I could. 
Miranda is weak-minded, but she is big and can do 
all the washing alone. So Mrs. Jenkins paid me and 
said I could go home.” 

“ She ought to have given you either a week’s notice 
or an extra week’s pay,” cried Dolly. 

“ She’d be likely to do that,” snorted Tom. 

Mrs. Rollins counted out the change Abby placed 
before her mechanically, making little piles of the 
coppers, nickels, and dimes on one end of the table. 
“Just one dollar and eighty- seven cents,” she sighed. 
“ She hasn’t even paid you up to the end of the week. 
You went to her on a Tuesday.” 

“ She hasn’t paid all that is due for the half-week,” 
commented Dolly with a curl of her lip. “ There’s a 
half-cent kept back. I’m glad I’m not her kind.” 

“ Say, Mr. Barnes has offered me as much for one 


TOM S AMBITION 


53 


day’s pay as you got for seven, Abby,” said Tom, 
looking up from the book generally at his elbow even 
when eating his meals. 

“ Seventy-five cents a day ! ” exclaimed his mother. 

“ Seventy-five cents for one day,” corrected the boy. 

“ What day ? ” asked Dolly incredulously. 

“ To-morrow.” Tom looked as guilty as if he had 
already broken the Sabbath which he had been asked 
to break. 

“O Tom, you wouldn’t, surely?” cried Abby. 

“Why not? We need all we can get and it’s only 
for one Sunday,” answered Tom. 

“ Dear me ! I wonder if it would be very wicked 
to work on Sunday once in a while when we are so 
very poor ? ” murmured Mrs. Rollins thinking aloud 
rather than addressing any one in particular. 

“ Of course it wouldn’t,” volunteered Dolly. 

“ I’m sure it’s very hard always to know what is 
best and, as Tom says, it’s only for the once,” con- 
tinued the mother looking toward her oldest daughter. 
“ The Lord knows I don’t want to sin against him, but 
it does seem as if people situated as we are can’t be 
too particular.” 

Abby’s cheeks flushed a little, but she said no word. 

“ You might as well speak right out, Abby Weston,” 
cried Dolly, looking at her sister’s face. “You know 
you want to.” 

“ No, Dolly, I’m not sure that I do want to,” was the 
hesitating response, “but perhaps I ought to. I was 
thinking it could never be right to do wrong, mother, 
and since God has allowed us to get into such straitened 
circumstances he cannot surely mean us to sin because 
of them.” 


54 


GAIL WESTON 


“ Pshaw ! I guess God has very little to do with our 
circumstances,” poohed Dolly. “ If he has ” — with 
sudden heat — “ it’s anything but to his credit to treat us 
so shamefully.” 

“ Dolly Rollins, you’re positively wicked ! ” Alice 
dropped the bread-plate from her hand in dismay. 

“ Dolly ! ” said her mother reproachfully. “ Whether 
Abby is right or I am right, it is a terrible sin to 
speak so of your Maker.” 

“ I don’t care if it is. It’s true, and why shouldn’t 
we say the truth of — of — him as we do of people?” 
contended Dolly. “ It is a shame to be as poor and 
pinched as we are all the time and whoever’s responsi- 
ble ought to be ashamed. I say it and I stick to it, and 
it’s no worse for me to say jvhat I think than it is for 
Abby to say what she thinks. I’m sure she the same as 
found fault with you before us all just now.” 

“ Leave the room this moment, Dorothea,” com- 
manded Mrs. Rollins with unusual severity. “ Yet it’s 
true, Abby,” turning to that troubled maiden. “You 
do find fault with me before the children. You might 
speak with me alone when you think I am wrong and 
not set them spying out my failings. I know I have 
enough of them,” her voice breaking. “When — when 
you’re the mother of a lot of needy children you may 
not be so sure of yourself as you are now.” 

“ I wasn’t finding fault with you, mother,” said 
Abby gently. “ I was only saying what came to me. 
And, mother, it must be true. God must have known 
that his people would often be in places where it would 
seem impossible to do it when he told them to keep 
the Sabbath Day holy. I think, perhaps, that was why 
he said * Remember.’ ” 


tom's ambition 


55 


“You think and you think!” exclaimed Mrs. 
Rollins irritably, giving way to her tears. “ I wonder 
with all your thinking you do not ‘ remember * that 
‘ honor thy father and thy mother ’ is among the com- 
mandments.” She bowed her head on the table' beside 
the money and gave way to her grief. 

“Mother, mother, don’t cry,” pleaded Abby, grieved 
that her simple words should work such mischief, 
wondering that her mother should so persistently mis- 
understand her. She threw aside her hat and cloak 
and took up the stocking which her mother had been 
darning when she entered the room. Patiently the 
girl sat before the basket of mending for the remainder 
of the evening, her cheeks very red, her eyes often dim. 
Everybody had gone to bed when she reached its 
bottom. 

“ Abby,” whispered a hoarse voice, as having re- 
moved her shoes lest she waken her mother, the tired 
girl ascended the stairs to seek her place beside Dolly. 
“ Abby.” 

“Is it you, Tom? Why aren’t you asleep?” The 
sister knelt beside the low bed and stroked the stubbly 
hair that stood up all over Tom’s finely formed head. 

“ I couldn’t get to sleep. Say, you mustn’t mind 
mother. She’s tired. There, you mustn’t cry. Why, 
Abby, you’ve always been such a brick,” as stifled sobs 
shook the bed. “ I — I — why, look here, this won’t do. 
Don’t you know you’re the only person in the house 
mother dares to scold? That’s why you have to take 
it. Doll’d sauce back, and Allie’d bawl, but you — why, 
you stand it like a major and it helps her to let it out. 
See here, I’m going to call you Gail, as he did — Ted, 
you know. You liked it, I saw that by your eyes. 


56 


GAIL WESTON 


Will you mind if I say it too? Abby isn’t half good 
enough for you, neither is this house, or mother, or 
Allie, or Doll. I know a good thing when I see it, 
and, I tell you what,” as his sister hugged him con- 
vulsively, “this is a poor home when you’re out of it. 
You were right to-night too, and I knew it. I feel 
kind’r mean all through just for speaking of old 
Barnes’ offer.” 

“Tom, you darling! What a comfort you are.” 

“Ain’t I though? Lend us a handkerchief, will you? 
You’ve slobbered tears all over my face. Ought to be 
as good as holy water for freckles. My ! What a thing 
a girl is! What are you laughing at? You’ll wake 
mother.” 

“ And you’re not going to work for Mr. Barnes to- 
morrow ? ” 

“ Not if I have to take the horsewhip to my own back 
to make it impossible. Fact is my head aches awfully 
already.” 

“Honest, Tom?” 

“ Just as honest as it will to-morrow. I never have 
the headache. Mother has enough for the whole 
family. Say, Gail,” hesitating over the unfamiliar 
word, “ that brother of yours had a pretty way of say- 
ing mamma that quite took Dol. She thinks we’d better 
adopt it — it’ll make us seem more like the squire’s 
folks. How’s that for a kite ? ” 

“ I think it matters little what we call mother if we 
can only make her happy and save her from hard 
work.” 

“ Ted didn’t save her from work yet he made her 
happy. She shone all over when he called her 
‘mamma.’ Doll tried it this afternoon. I told her it 


tom’s ambition 


57 


wouldn’t work, and it didn’t. Mother looked up quick 
like and glad when she heard it, but when she saw it 
was only Dolly the light and gladness went all out 
of her face and she sighed. She doesn’t care for us 
as she does for him.” 

Gail’s arms pressed Tom closer. “ She has been 
without Ted for so long,” she apologized. “ He was 
her first baby and she has been so hungry for him. 
When grandpa first took him she used to sit and cry 
for hours. I can just remember it.” The girl did not 
say that once, when she tried to comfort her mother 
for her loss, she had been thrust away and told to hide 
her homely face as it only made the loss of her beauti- 
ful boy more unendurable. Abby refused to recall the 
incident. 

“ I don’t blame her,” said Tom generously. “ He’s 
swell and no mistake. I wonder how it would feel to 
have such glossy hair and red cheeks; to wear store 
clothes and white collars, and sport a watch-chain? 
He’s not a bad kind either. He meant well when he 
bought us fellows those shoes, but I’d rather go bare- 
foot than wear mine. I’m not fond of charity even 
from relations.” 

“For shame, Tom! You know Ted didn’t mean it 
for charity. It was just as if I had bought them, and 
think how I’d feel if I bought you shoes and you 
wouldn’t wear them.” 

“ But I would, you bet. I’d know you didn’t sling 
them at me or get them for my mother’s sake. I 
wouldn’t swap you for ten Teds each twice as hand- 
some as your brother. Gail, I wanted to hate him for 
a fact, and just because he was your own brother and 
I was only a half.” 


58 


GAIL WESTON 


“ You are my very own brother, Tom Rollins, and 
you need never say you are not again,” said Abby 
stoutly. “ I shouldn’t know what to do without you.” 

“ Your eyes never shine when they see me as they did 
when you looked at Ted that night he was here.” 

“ My heart does, Tom. My heart does truly. It 
shines and shines not only when I see you but when I 
think of you, for you are going to be a splendid man 
some day. And you mustn’t be jealous of Ted. He’s 
my father’s only son, you know, and looks like papa. 
That would make him beautiful to me however he 
looked. I have worried about him some; been afraid 
he might not be nice and good. But he is ” — a glad 
ring in the girlish voice. “We can all be proud of him. 
He liked you, Tom, and he thinks Dolly will make a 
beauty, and Alice too. Then think how kind he was 
to mother.” 

“ Oh, yes, he was kind to everybody, but that oughtn’t 
to be very hard work with plenty of money, good 
clothes, and a chance to study all the time. I think 
I might manage to be kind to a few poor relations on 
a pinch, and with my grandfather’s pocketbook to fall 
back upon, even if I’m not a beauty.” 

“ Oh, how cruel ! I didn’t think you could be so 
unkind, Tom. Ted has always had what he wanted 
and does not look at things as we do. He didn’t mean 
to put on airs. If I had money you should have all 
that Ted has had, clothes, and travel, and books ” 

“ O Abby, do you s’pose I ever shall have books ? 
If I had money I’d fill this house with books. No, I 
wouldn’t. I’d buy Squire Banscombe’s house and fill it 
full and invite all the fellows in to read. Wouldn’t 
we have a time.” 


tom’s ambition 


59 

Abby sighed as she kissed him good night and tucked 
the sheet around Ben. “ God knows what we need 
most,” she whispered. “ If he sees you need books he’ll 
give them to you some day. I’ve asked him to, and 
’most always he does what we ask if we wait awhile.” 

“O Abby, if I thought he ever would,” gasped 
Tom. 

“ He will. I ’most know he will if we keep asking.” 

“ Praying, you mean ? I’ve never prayed for them, 
I’ve only wanted them awfully.” 

“ That’s a kind of praying, I think,” whispered his 
sister. “ It’s something in us crying for what it needs. 
When Pet was a baby she always cried for what she 
needed because she couldn’t ask, but mother and I un- 
derstood and gave her what she wanted. But you’re old 
enough to ask. Why don’t you pray for an education, 
Tom? God can do anything.” 

“ He’ll answer you quicker’n he will me.” 

“ But God has made a promise where two pray, 
Tom.” 

“ A promise ? ” 

“ Yes. He says, ‘ If two of you shall agree on earth 
as touching anything that they shall ask, it shall be 
done for them of my Father which is in heaven.’ That’s 
a special promise, Tom.” 

“ Is it for me ? Isn’t there something in the Bible 
about the prayers of the wicked being an abomination ? ” 

“ People do not stay wicked after they begin to pray,” 
answered Abby. 

“ Are you sure ? Then I’ll begin, but I’m afraid I’ll 
never be very good, Gail. Say,” lowering his voice, 
“ I don’t seem to want to be good half as much as I 
want to go to school.” 


6o 


GAIL WESTON 


“ Yes,” said Gail and hesitated. “ Perhaps,” she went 
on presently, “ that’s because going to school is what 
you need to help you to be real good. Anyway, we’ll 
ask. It can’t do any harm. God’ll know what to give 
us and he won’t give us what’ll hurt us, I’m sure. 
Good night, dear.” 

“ Good night, Gail.” 


IV 


A TALK ABOUT MOTHERS 



HEODORE WESTON left Greenville in a rather 


X uneasy frame of mind. For the first time in his 
life he faced a problem that he could not settle off- 
hand and was unwilling to give a fair hearing lest his 
conscience insist on a course he was not ready to fol- 
low. In the succeeding weeks of fun he tried to forget 
his mother and sister — the vision he had obtained of 
a life unimagined until now. He persuaded himself 
as he steamed away from them that he could help them 
best by not giving up his present advantages, and 
elaborated plans whereby he could not only save a part 
of his allowance for that purpose, but add to the fund 
by actual labor. There must be some way by which he 
could earn money. He would try, anyway, and mean- 
while must cut down his personal expenses. 

He denied himself the purchase of a handsome 
necktie that struck his fancy on his way to the station 
where he was to meet Rob Thompson, and felt very 
virtuous over the fact. He had about reached mental 
terra firma. What was the use of spoiling his vaca- 
tion because somebody else couldn’t have one? He’d 
make it all up to his mother and the others by and by. 
He had crippled himself in pocket already to be good 
to them and intended to continue his kindness. He 
was in quite an exalted state of mind when he met his 
friend. 


61 


62 


GAIL WESTON 


It must be confessed that the sight of young Thomp- 
son’s silver-mounted fishing-rod — a gift to the youth — 
rather disturbed our hero. It led to his writing to his 
grandfather that evening for a considerable increase 
of his allowance, mentioning incidentally, that he had 
shared his last with some one worse off than himself. 
He felt something of a sneak when he read the letter 
Grandma Weston sent with the increased allowance, 
but he must have a fishing-rod like Rob’s. It ran : 

Grandpa and I are both glad you feel for the unfortunate. 
You were so from a child. When you were given any- 
thing you generally wanted as much for those who were 
playing with you. That’s right, only be wise in your giv- 
ing, darling, and make it your very own by sacrificing 
your comfort a little. That’s the way to get the biggest 
blessing. Grandpa sends love and says you are to get 
as much healthy fun out of your vacation as is possible. 
I can see that he misses you, though he will not admit it. 
He doesn’t seem to enjoy the flowers, or bees, or anything 
else as much as he did last summer when you were at 
home. He wants you to invite your two friends here for 
next summer, and I think you had better have them at 
Thanksgiving too. God bless my boy, etc., etc. 

“ She’s the dearest and best woman in the world,” 
thought Ted, his cheeks crimsoning as he folded the 
letter. “ She’d never object if she knew whom I had 

been spending money on, but grandpa Well, a 

fellow has to decide some things for himself. I’ve just 
let him run me so far, now ” 

The fact is, Ted was having some difficulty over that 
“now,” and almost wished he had never visited his 
mother. Try as he did to forget the poverty he had 
witnessed, it was not quite possible. His every little 
expenditure or luxury was a prick to his conscience. 
The abundance and the beauty of the home to which he 


A TALK ABOUT MOTHERS 63 

had come contrasted sharply with what he had left and 
troubled him in spite of himself. So also did the con- 
versation of his friends. 

Horace Franksin was a thoughtful, serious youth, 
two years older than our hero and an orphan. His 
solicitous enquiries after Rob’s mother when letters 
arrived and a wistful something in his voice and man- 
ner when he spoke of Rob’s parents, impressed Ted 
very much. It seemed at times as if everything was 
conspiring to make him miserable. He resented this 
fact and hated himself for resenting it. 

“ You’re a fortunate fellow,” he said to Horace one 
day as he flung himself on the grass after an exciting 
game of ball. “ I suppose you own this place ? ” 

“ Yes, and a lot of other places and a good bank 
account to boot,” broke in Rob. “ He’s to be envied if 
ever a fellow was.” 

“ Yet I’d swap all I own for a mother, Rob,” said 
Horace from his grassy bed. “ I’m sure you wouldn’t 
give me yours in exchange for my fortune.” 

“ Guess not,” was the instant reply. “ My kind of 
a mother is scarce, can’t be bought at any price. I 
couldn’t get on without her — none of us could.” 

“ That’s it.” Horace drew himself to a sitting posture. 
“ That’s what I want ; something that cannot be dis- 
pensed with and whose value cannot be calculated in 
dollars and cents. If I had a mother here now,” his 
voice vibrated with feeling, “ why this would be a para- 
dise. I’d be planning all the time for something nice 
to surprise or please her. Sometimes I think I’d be 
contented with almost anybody who really belonged to 
me. A sister, for instance. Other fellows have them — 
lots of them— and don’t seem to prize them much either. 


64 


GAIL WESTON 


I suppose that’s because they’ve always had them, 

while I Fellows, I don’t know but you’ll think I’m 

soft, but sometimes I lie awake nights thinking what I 
would do if I found out unexpectedly that I really had 
a mother or a sister somewhere — some one belonging 
to me as yours do to you.” 

Ted felt his cheeks flush, but Horace went on. “ It 
seems as if a boy was scarcely human who has no 
women folks of his own. I’ve got uncle Burns and he’s 
good to me, but he’s off so much and always thinks 
more of his curios and his scientific investigations than 
he does of me. Mrs. Harper is kind and does every- 
thing she can for me ” — Mrs. Harper was his house- 
keeper, a distant relation of his uncle’s — “ but she can’t 
do some things because she is Mrs. Harper and not 
mother, or aunt, or even cousin. I sometimes wish 
Uncle Burns would marry and leave his wife with me 
when he goes off. Wouldn’t I take good care of her 
though.” 

Ted listened with eyes upon the ground in a sort 
of shame. What would his friend think if he knew 
that he — Ted Weston — had left his mother and sister 
in direst poverty, laboring hard, to come here and 
enjoy himself? 

“ I’m sorry for you, Hod,” said Thompson’s hearty 
boy voice. “ A mother’s a big institution for a fact, 
and a fellow’s to be pitied who hasn’t one. But don’t 
feel too bad. You’ll have women folks of your own 
some of these times. A nice little girl will be coming 
your way some day and then you can have a wife.” 

Ted’s laugh — though it was not of the heartiest 
kind — cut this speech short and brought the color 
to Rob’s cheeks, but Horace was leaning on one 


A TALK ABOUT MOTHERS 65 

elbow regarding the speaker with undisguised satis- 
faction. 

“ Do you know I’ve thought of that myself,” he said 
gravely. “ I can make it up to some one else, see that 
some other poor little fellow isn’t left motherless. It’s 
worth a lot to make people happy and it isn’t things — 
mere stuff and belongings — that can make them so. 
The biggest giving in this world is giving one’s self. 
I’ve dreamed of that little girl more than once fellows ” 
— a beautiful pink tinging the dark cheek. “ When she 
comes I shall know her and she’ll be welcome. There 
won’t be anything too good for her, either.” 

“ You’ll be glad then that you’ve got all this for her,” 
said Ted with a sweep of his arm toward house and 
grounds. 

‘‘Yes; I’m glad already. But she won’t value them 

as she will me and ” he stopped and looked at his 

comrades as if uncertain whether to go on or not. 

“ * And ’ what, Sir Dreamer ? ” cried Rob. 

“‘And’ what, Old Schemer?” cried Ted. 

“ And that’s one reason I’m bound to be straight and 
clean through and through, so that I need not blush 
in her presence or fear she will find out what I’d rather 
she’d never know,” finished Horace with firm lips and 
flashing eyes. 

“ Oh, but my mother’d like to hear that,” said Rob, 
and Ted thought of Ruth Banscombe. 

“ I know a girl who would just fit into your dream, 
Hod,” he said. “ A girl as dainty and beautiful as she 
is good and merry.” 

“Who is she?” cried both of his listeners in one 
breath. 

“ Her name is Ruth. She has hazel eyes and soft 

E 


66 


GAIL WESTON 


brown hair that clings in little curls all about her 
forehead ” 

A poet in our very midst, unknown as yet to fame? 

Is’t that or is it love that works already in his frame? 

extemporized Rob, but Horace did not heed the in- 
terruption. He was waiting eagerly for Ted’s next 
words. 

“ Her skin’s like a baby’s,” continued the narrator, 
“ the pink comes and goes in her cheeks when she 
laughs.” 

“ Yes,” sighed Horace. “ I should want her to 
laugh.” 

Thompson kicked Ted slyly and winked. “ All 
ready to love by proxy,” he muttered in a stage 
whisper. “ You’d better stop at once, Weston.” 

Horace made a dive for the speaker, threw him flat 
on the grass and sat on him. “ Now behave yourself,” 
he said. “ Go on, Ted.” 

“ She makes you feel as if you were no great shakes 
— at least that’s the way she made me feel and just by 
looking at me; yet her eyes are so full of mischief 
you can’t be sure she isn’t poking fun at you all 
the time. She told a kid I know that boys were in 
the world to make ‘ brave, clean, splendid men,’ and 
explained that ‘ brave ’ boys were those who couldn’t 
be laughed out of doing right, who would fight for 
those weaker than themselves, and who would always 
stand up for the poor and abused.” 

Young Franksin drew a long breath. “ You know 
her ? ” he asked. 

“ Not well. I have met her once or twice.” 

“ And remember all that about her ? ” cried Rob 


A TALK ABOUT MOTHERS 


67 

incredulously. “ Take no stock in him, Hod. He’s a 
false, perfidious friend. Build no hopes on this para- 
gon, if she exists ; for any one with half an eye can see 
that he’s gone on her himself. Get off of me, will 
you ? ” kicking lustily. “ I can’t breathe.” 

“ Then behave yourself.” Horace rolled over the 
grass to Ted’s feet. “ Say, Ted, she’s all right,” he 
said. “ What did you say her name was? ” 

“ Ruth — Ruth Banscombe.” 

The young man drew out his pocket memorandum 
and wrote the name down. “ Where did you say you 
met her ? ” he looked up to inquire. 

“ I didn’t say, but it was at her father’s house. 
He is Squire Banscombe of Greenville.” 

“ Greenville ! ” soliloquized Rob, edging nearer, 
“ Greenville ! That’s near enough to take a tramp there 
some day and be introduced. See here, I want you two 
fellows to know that if you are going in for this 
thing, why I’ll make a third. The best man shall 
have the girl. I’m bound not to be left out unless I’m 
cut out. Ted, how mournful you look. I’ll bet you’re 
sorry already that you’ve given your secret away. I’m 
sorry for you. It’s tough to have two such irresistibles 
as Hod and myself on the scent of your fair one. But 
don’t take it too hard, my boy. You have your good 
points as well as others. I know Hod has money to 
burn, but money’s not everything. You’re intellectual, 
don’t you know, and not too bad looking. As for me, 
‘ My face is my fortune, sir, she said,’ and I can’t be 
too thankful that my nose turns up at just the right 
angle and that my freckles are of the largest size and 
the most fashionable color.” 

“ Rob, what a nuisance you are ! ” Horace laughed 


68 


GAIL WESTON 


and grasped his tormentor by both shoulders, only to 
be grasped about the waist in his turn. Over and over 
the two rolled across the smooth sward, but Ted’s face 
did not relax to its usual smile at the fun. 

“ Let up you two,” he said presently. “ I’d like to 
ask you a question. I want your opinion on something.” 

“ A question in midsummer ! And he dares to expect 
an answer? Hod, this is serious.” Rob held Franksin 
at arm’s length while he shook his head gravely. “ Is 
it the girl question, or only that girl’s recipe for making 
men that troubles him? How did it go, Weston? 
‘ Brave, clean, splendid ? ’ That feminine would suit 
my mother. Strike up, Teddy my boy. Name your 
difficulty, your friends are all ears. Is it cowardice, 
dirt, or some lack in the requisites for filling out that 
‘ splendid ’ that bothers you ? Do you know I think 
I’d fit on that last item. The three of us together are 
certain to fill the bill. You’re ‘ brave ’ — you licked 
Sam Lumis last term for calling Sadie Adams cross- 
eyed ; Hod here is ‘ clean,’ and I’m equal to the ‘ splen- 
did’ all right — the general gloss and shine, you know. 
‘ United we stand. Divided we fall.’ ” 

“ What would you fellows say a chap ought to do,” 
said Ted, quite ignoring Rob’s nonsense, “ who had a 
mother and sister, but grew up without knowing them, 
and all of a sudden came across them one day and found 
them poor and overworked and underfed? You say 
you sometimes dream of suph a find, Hod. Suppose 
a fellow really had such — a fellow like me, without 
means of his own. Ought he to stick to those who had 
brought him up, had loved and cared for him, or ought 
he to leave them and give up all his chances in life to 
work for his mother and sister ? ” 


A TALK ABOUT MOTHERS 69 

The seriousness of the questioner’s face sobered 
Rob. “Wouldn’t it depend upon circumstances?” he 
asked. 

“What circumstances?” Ted’s tone was eager. 
Separation from his present life looked hard and bitter 
to him at that moment. 

“ Well, for instance, as to who the people were who 
had brought him up and why they had done so,” said 
Rob, “ and whether his mother had deserted him or 
not. Women have been known to do that, Hod” — as 
Horace uttered an indignant protest. “ If these people 
had taken him as their own under some such circum- 
stances and had learned to feel toward him as their 
own, why then ” 

Ted broke in impetuously. “ Suppose his mother had 
not deserted him, but was too poor to do for him all 
she longed to do; suppose she parted from him reluc- 
tantly, but did it for the boy’s sake, that he might re- 
ceive home, education — inherit property by and by ? ” 

“ Nothing could have forced my mother to do that,” 
cried Rob. “ She’d have worked her fingers off for 
me but she would never have given me up.” 

“ And as to property and all that,” put in Horace 
eagerly, “ she ought to have known that a mother’s 
love would outweigh it all; and a mother’s teachings 
be worth it all.” 

“ But say she didn’t know that.” Ted could not bear 
to have his mother blamed even in this roundabout 
fashion. “ Say she was young and not strong and that 
her husband’s people wanted the boy and could do more 
for him than she could. Say it nearly broke her heart 
to give him up, but she thought it right and suffered 
in doing it for his sake ” 


7o 


GAIL WESTON 


“ Then he’d be worse than a heathen not to sacrifice 
as much for her when he found it out,” declared Hor- 
ace. “ He should leave everything he most prized if 
she needed his help.” 

“ But,” argued Ted, “ what if his going to her should 
defeat all her plans, all that for which she had given 
him up ? What if she were still willing to struggle on 
alone rather than have him miss what she had coveted 
for him — the education, training, property?” 

“ Still he ought to go to her,” exclaimed Horace. 
“ As she considered his good only so he should consider 
hers. She is his mother. Her heart will indorse his 
act whatever her solicitude for him may make her try 
to believe.” Ted thought of his mother’s wistful glance 
as he had caught it fixed upon his face more than once 
and felt sure Horace was right. 

“ But what about these other people — the ones who 
have nursed and fed and loved the fellow all his life; 
taken his mother’s place ? ” asked Rob. “ I think they 
ought to be considered a little. The boy is as dear to 
them as their own. 

“ Yes,” chimed in Ted. “ Suppose he is the son of 
their only son, now dead, and dearer to them than life; 
suppose they are old — may soon die. Could he not help 
his mother somehow and yet stay with them? Would 
it not be better to make the best of his privileges, get 
ready for his life-work, that by and by he may lift her 
wholly beyond want ? ” 

Horace shook his head. “ After he knows he has a 
mother, he chooses between her and others. Her loyalty 
to his best interests should make his choice of her un- 
hesitating. Others — whatever they have done — take 
second place. If they are what they ought to be they 


A TALK ABOUT MOTHERS 


71 


will understand this and respect him for a decision in 
her favor. If I had a mother nothing on earth should 
keep me from her. Don’t you say so, Rob ? ” The 
youth’s eyes lighted, his face glowed with enthusiasm. 

“If she were my mother? Yes,” answered Rob de- 
cisively. “ But I’m not altogether sure of your conclu- 
sions in every case, Hod. We have in our town a 
family where the mother has no claim whatever on a 
son once hers. She gave him away. She abuses the 
children she has left. She is as poor as poverty while her 
son lives in luxury, but he can’t lift her, it is impossi- 
ble; he has tried. Return to her would simply mean 
degradation for him and no betterment of her condi- 
tion. In such cases as these under discussion I believe 
a man must decide for himself, according to circum- 
stances and his inner light. Come, Ted, don’t look so 
lugubrious. It isn’t your fate we are deciding. You 
deserve chastisement for propounding such a question 
on such a day and I’m ready to administer it.” 

So saying Rob caught Ted by both hands while 
Horace sprang to grasp his feet.) Another moment our 
friend had forgotten his recent queries in the attempt 
to fight two antagonists at one time. He did not think 
of the subject again until bedtime; then up it popped 
like Banquo’s ghost, refusing to be laid. 

If Rob was right this was something he must settle 
personally for himself. What then? Why let it spoil 
all the good times ahead ? Why not put it by until after 
vacation? He decided that he would. He would have 
one good month of fun whatever came next. How silly 
he had been. ’Twas a wonder he hadn’t given himself 
quite away. He would steer clear of dangerous ground 
hereafter. So he at last fell asleep. 


V 


A SECRET NO LONGER 



FD made no more references to duty or mothers 


i during the holidays and avoided all topics likely 
to lead to the discussion of such subjects. He appeared 
to be his own gay self in every way, rivaling Rob in 
the number and originality of his pranks, quite winning 
the heart of the housekeeper by his cheerful humor and 
frankly handsome face. Before school began he had 
decided to go on with his studies just as if he still 
knew nothing of his mother, trusting that if he ought 
really to go to her the fact would be made plain to 
him. For the present he would do nothing. Yet he 
had not been settled down to the old life a full month 
when he unexpectedly came to another conclusion that 
changed his life forever. 

It happened simply enough. Horace Franksin, who 

was his roommate at X , came from the post-office 

one afternoon with a couple of letters in his hands. 
“ One for you, Ted,” he said, flinging the epistle at his 
chum. “ It’s in a woman’s hand.” 

Ted flushed as he looked at the straggling handwrit- 
ing. Something told him it was from his mother even 
before he glanced at the post-mark. He had written her 
a few lines on first returning to school and this was her 
answer; a few poorly scribbled words, meant to be 
loving and tender, yet marred with complaint against 
her poverty, her surroundings, herself. 


72 


A SECRET NO LONGER 


73 


“ I am surprised that you care to write to me,” one 
part ran. “ I wonder that any one who ever saw or had 
things decent should think of me. I’m not fit to be your 
mother. Perhaps that is the reason that the Lord al- 
lowed you to be taken from me — he knew I could not 
bring you up properly. It was cruel, hard, and I’ve 
never been the same woman since, and never will be; 
but I’m glad your grandfather can’t wean you from me 
altogether. He’s a hard, close man, Theodore, and 
that’s why I’m suffering to-day. But all I ask now 
is that you’ll not let him make you forget your mother 
entirely, or believe that she gave you up for any other 
reason than that you might have what she has never 
had — a chance to be somebody; to be like other folks.” 

Ted sat staring at his open Virgil, after he had re- 
folded this letter and returned it to its envelope, but 
without seeing a word. “ What should he do ? ” The 
old struggle was on again. 

“Is it such bad news, old fellow?” asked Horace, 
and looking up Ted met two sparkling eyes. “ My 
letter’s from Uncle Burns, and think, Ted, he’s coming 
back earlier than he thought, and — now prepare for a 
surprise — he and I are invited to Greenville to eat our 
Thanksgiving dinner with — guess whom ? ” 

“‘Greenville’!” echoed Ted in amazement. “Was 
your letter from Greenville too ? ” 

“No; my letter was from a very different quarter 
of the compass. Who is there at Greenville to write 
you letters, young man ? ” 

“ My mother.” Ted’s secret was told and he did not 
know he had told it. 

“Your mother! I didn’t know you had a mother 
alive,” cried Horace in surprise. 


74 


GAIL WESTON 


“ I’ve known it always, but I never knew, her until 
last summer. I hunted her up while waiting for Rob 
to come with me to your place.” 

Horace seemed to be regarding his friend fixedly, 
but his eyes had gone in somewhere in quest of an 
almost forgotten story. “ It was yourself you meant 
that day last summer ? ” he asked presently, his eyes 
now keen with understanding. 

“ Yes.” 

“ And you couldn’t make up your mind then ? ” 

“ No. But I have now,” answered Ted, announcing 
a fact that he was only conscious of as he announced it. 

“You’re going to her?” eagerly. 

“ Yes.” 

“ And there’s a sister, didn’t you say ? ” 

“ Yes.” 

“ She’s pretty and superior ? ” 

“ Decidedly not pretty.” 

“ They’re at Greenville ? ” 

“ Yes.” 

“ That’s where ” — Horace put his hand into his 
pocket and drew forth a little book. “Ted, I asked 
you awhile ago to guess where Uncle Burns and I were 
invited to eat our Thanksgiving dinner, and you did 
not answer me. Do it now.” 

“ Where you are to eat your Thanksgiving dinner 
do you mean ? ” 

“ Yes. It’s somewhere in Greenville.” 

“ It can’t be with me, though I wish that k were 
possible.” 

“It’ll be in the same village and we can come back 
to school together. Uncle Burns is coming for me. 
Perhaps you can make one of our party going.” 


A SECRET NO LONGER 75 

“ I shall have to give up school if I go home to my 
mother,” said Ted. “ I shall have to work.” 

“No! Why, old fellow, how am I to stand that? 
Ted Weston no longer at school! What will the old 
ark be without you ? Oh, forgive me ! As if it wasn’t 
hard enough for you already without my finding fault. 
You’re a hero, Ted.” 

“ You don’t know me,” said Ted from behind his 
hands. “ It takes all there is of me. I don’t want to 
do it, but they’re really suffering at home. Horace, 
you have no idea what a blow this will be to my 
grandparents.” 

“ It’s hard. It’s very hard, Ted. They’re well off, 
aren’t they — your grandparents? Why can’t you all 
be together ? ” 

“ I don’t know. There are some things I do not un- 
derstand any better than you do, Horace. I gather 
from things I have heard that my mother and my 
grandfather do not agree very well, yet they both love 
me. I am forced to choose between them. I love them 
both, but my mother seems to need me most.” 

“ Then you will have to go to her. No brave man 
can see a woman suffer when he can prevent it. Have 
you any money in your own right, Ted? Anything 
from your father ? ” 

“ Nothing. I imagine my father disobeyed grand- 
father when he married mamma. He was young — just 
out of college. He probably lost his inheritance. I 
shall have nothing to take her but my two hands.” 

“ She will value them more than untold wealth. 
Then there’s your sister to love and pet you. There’ll 
be two besides yourself to support.” 

“ ‘ Two ’ ! ” laughed Ted rather bitterly. “ There’s a 


GAIL WESTON 


76 

houseful. There’s Alice and Dolly — two; Tom and 
Benny — four ; Pet — five, besides mamma and Gail, 
which makes seven. I am the eighth.” 

“ Seven people all your own folks ! ” Horace showed 
such utter amazement that Ted laughed again, howbeit 
not mirthfully. 

“ Seven, and most of them helpless ; all of them but 
mamma younger than myself. My sister Gail is next 
to me. She is sixteen. Alice, mamma’s oldest by her 
second husband, is thirteen; Doll and Tom are twelve 
— they’re twins though no one would guess it, Tom’s so 
homely while Dolly’s quite a beauty. Ben’s seven and 
Pet only four.” 

Horace was frowning. “ Your mother married the 
second time ? ” he said. 

“ Yes. That may have provoked grandpa. It was 
then he took me home.” 

“ I see. Why do you think she married again ? ” 

“ Oh, she’s not the kind of woman to stand alone 
and fight the world. I imagine Gail could. Perhaps 
she was lonely. I’ve tried not to think of that much, 
Hod. She’s my mother and the children are funny 
scraps. You should hear them squabble.” 

“ Perhaps,” commented Horace as if finishing out 
some line of thought, “perhaps she thought that chil- 
dren ought to have a father as I think they ought to 
have a mother, if the article can be obtained. I think 
you’ll have to let me help you take care of those chil- 
dren, Ted. I don’t see why you shouldn’t” — seeing 
dissent written on his chum’s face. “ Their father was 
no more your relation than he was mine. So I have as 
much right to look out for his children as you have.” 

“ But I do not get the right through my stepfather,” 


A SECRET NO LONGER 


77 


was the instant reply. “ I fear I should feel no real in- 
terest in them — funny as they are — if both of their 
parents were as little to me as their father is. They 
are my mother’s children and, therefore, my half- 
brothers and sisters.” 

“ Ted, I envy you, I really do. Think of seven peo- 
ple — a mother and six brothers and sisters all your 
own.” 

“ And all needing food, clothes — everything,” an- 
swered Ted despondently. 

“ I am a minor, I cannot do what I would yet,” said 
Horace, “but my allowance is much larger than my 
needs. Let me share with you, Ted?” 

“ Not until I prove myself unable to get on without 
help. Who knows, grandpa may relent after all, rather 
than give me up. He has denied me nothing I have 
asked for so far in life.” Ted, always prone to see 
the best side of things, brightened. 

“ Then be sure he will not deny you when you plead 
your mother’s cause,” said Horace. “ If he does, why 
call on me. Let me have one of the little shavers to 
educate anyway. Think what a delight it would be to 
me. I wonder do they like books ? ” 

“ One of them does. I can answer for that. Gail 
says he is a ‘ geenus/ as Benny puts it. He has a book 
at his elbow as he eats. I think I never saw him with- 
out one while I was at the house except when he was 
sawing wood.” 

“ What’s his name ? ” 

“ Tom — Tom Rollins.” 

Horace opened the little morocco memorandum 
book, still in his hand, and wrote, “Tom Rollins, my 
ward. October I, 18 — . There,” he said looking up. 


78 


GAIL WESTON 


“ I’ve adopted Tom. Now will you please answer my 
long-ago question ? Who in Greenville has invited 
Uncle Burns and myself to eat our Thanksgiving 
dinner with him ? ” 

“ In Greenville ? ” asked a merry voice at the door. 

“ In Greenville,” laughed Horace. “ This is the 
third time I’ve asked Ted that question, Rob, and he 
hasn’t answered it yet.” 

Rob looked mischievously at the culprit. “ He doesn’t 
want to answer it,” he said. “ His eyes are green with 
envy, and so are mine. I’ll wager a dollar it’s that 
Ruth — Ruth — Coxcomb — Honeycomb — or some other 
kind of comb.” 

“ It’s her father — Squire Banscombe,” assented Hor- 
ace. “ He, or rather his wife, is an old friend of 
uncle’s. The squire has been West and fell in with 
uncle. Learning that he knew Mrs. Banscombe, he in- 
vited him to spend Thanksgiving with them, and hear- 
ing he had an unworthy nephew somewhere, kindly 
included him in the invitation. Think of such luck! 
We’ll meet at Greenville, Ted.” 

“ What ! Ted invited too ! This is what I call nasty. 
Why should I be left out ? ” 

“ Because you’re not worth putting in. Ted is think- 
ing of going to Greenville to live.” 

“ No ! Is there a fitting school there? Perhaps pater 
familias might be persuaded to let me go too. Any- 
thing for a sight of the adorable Ruth.” 

Franksin’s sensitive face flushed. “ I don’t quite like 
that way of speaking of a young lady,” he said. “To 
my mind it sounds somewhat discourteous.” 

Thompson made a grimace. “You carry your chiv- 
alry so far, Hod, I am unable to follow, its flights,” he 


A SECRET NO LONGER 


79 


laughed. “Aren’t you a bit afraid to let Ted go to 
Greenville alone? Have the field to himself? I do 
not wish to transgress again, but you know he is al- 
ready acquainted with this feminine divinity and is 
not wholly devoid of attractions — or perhaps you have 
decided to change schools also ? ” 

“ There’s no school at Greenville outside of the dis- 
trict school,” volunteered Ted. “ I’m going there to 
find work. My mother lives there.” 

Rob sat down as if his legs had suddenly given way 
beneath him. “ Then that midsummer question of 
yours had something behind it? I feared as much. I 
advise you to go slow, my boy.” 

“ I’ve already made up my mind.” 

“ I’m sorry. Perhaps it would be as well to unmake 
it then. If you leave school what about that prize? 
You shouldn’t miss it and it’s yours, all right. Prexie 
told me this very morning that I had only you to fear.” 

“ Then you’ll get it sure and I’m glad. Better you 
than any other fellow around here.” Then Ted told his 
story again. 

“ And you go at once ? ” 

“Yes; I can’t study or do anything else while this 
is on my mind. I’m going to grandpa’s to have it out 
with him. How he takes it will decide whether there 
is any more school for me or not.” 

“ I’m sorry. No number of prizes can make up your 
loss to me, old chap, and I believe I express the sen- 
timent of every fellow in this school. What do you 
say, Hod?” 

“You’re right,” answered Horace soberly, “quite 
right ; yet we who know why he goes must honor him 
more than if he remained and took many prizes.” 


VI 


BROKEN TIES AND BREAKING HEARTS 


HEODORE WESTON surprised his grand- 



i parents two days after that talk with his chums. 
Grandma started from her chair with a cry of joy as he 
passed the window opposite to where she sat. A mo- 
ment later she had both arms about his neck. “ You 
are not sick, darling ? ” she asked anxiously as he 
patted her gray head. 

“ Not I,” he answered gaily. “ I was never better in 
my life.” 

“ Don’t be too inquisitive, mother,” cautioned grand- 
pa, a twinkle in his eyes as he took the youth’s ex- 
tended hand in both his own. “ How do you know that 
he and Thompson haven’t got mixed up in another 
scrape? Sit down, sit down Ted and eat your dinner. 
Talk is as unwholesome as work on an empty stomach. 
After you’ve had your fill we’ll hear what you have to 
say for yourself. Perhaps he got homesick, hey, grand- 
ma?” with a wink at his wife. “If that’s the reason 
he’s here we’ll never be sure of it. I never expect to 
see the boy who will admit himself homesick. I never 
did and I came as near collapsing with that disease 
as it is in the nature of youth to do the first time I 
went away to school. If I had been caught horse- 
stealing I could not have been more ashamed of myself. 
Take another bit of this steak, Ted. No? Well 
you’re not as fond of a good thing as I am for I’m 


80 


BROKEN TIES AND BREAKING HEARTS 8l 

ready for the second helping. How’s Horace? Had 
a great time vacation month, didn’t you ? ” 

“Immense! We went everywhere and did every- 
thing.” 

“ Took in Honolulu and China and climbed old 
Chimborazo, I suppose,” chuckled Mr. Weston. 

Ted’s eyes twinkled as he raised them at this remark 
and grandma thought again, as she had thought so 
many times, that two peas in the same pod could not 
be more alike than the boy and his grandfather, only 
one was a very young and tender pea while the other 
was growing yellow with age. 

“ Hod and Rob are great ! Such fellows as you sel- 
dom meet, and Mrs. Harper — she's the housekeeper — 
seemed to know just what boys liked to eat. She’s al- 
most as good a cook as you are, grandma, and such 
quantities of stuff as she could manage to cram into a 
basket! We went fishing, or climbing, or hunting, 
almost every day and there was no end of new places 
around there.” 

“Brand new, do you mean? Made on purpose for 
you boys ? ” grandpa winked again at his wife. 

Ted laughed uneasily. The conviction was forcing 
itself upon him that all this kindly mirth would be 
changed into something hard and bitter in a few 
minutes under the sad magic of what he had come to 
say. He lingered over his pie and took a second piece, 
at his grandmother’s solicitation, though he did not 
need it and could not finish it. He was putting off the 
inevitable. 

“You haven’t brought your trunk with you, have 
you?” inquired grandpa, smiling from under his 
bushy brows as he wiped his mouth and pushed his 
F 


8 2 


GAIL WESTON 


chair from the table. “No? I thought not. Kind’r 
wanted to give the old folks a sight of your face for 
fear they’d forget it? Hey? You rascal! Well, I’m 
not what you might call sorry to see you though I 
expect I’ll have to give you back the price of your car- 
fare. How are things progressing at school? Keep- 
ing up your rank, are you? Remember you’re to 
graduate first in your class if I’m to let you go to 
Europe with Horace and his. uncle.” 

How hard his grandfather was making it for Ted to 
confess the reason for his presence at the farmhouse; 
how terrible to be reminded of that trip to Europe — the 
only thing he had not taken into consideration in con- 
nection with his expected change of circumstances. 

“ These are pretty good apples if I do say so. There’s 
a great crop this year. Better chew on one while you 
tell us what brought you home. I’ve been intending 
to send you and the boys a lot of them. You can take 
them back with you.” 

“ But — but — I’m not sure I’m going back,” began Ted 
desperately. 

“Not sure you’re going back!” cried grandma anx- 
iously, but grandpa placed a big hand on the youth’s 
shoulder and said : 

“ Make a clean breast of it, my boy. Whatever it is 
I guess it’s not beyond repair. I shouldn’t wonder if I 
could pull you through, somehow. I’ve been a boy 
myself,” he went on as Ted found it impossible to con- 
trol his voice. The lad’s trembling lips and tear-filled 
eyes made the gentleman sure he had struck the right 
chord. His grandson had been guilty of some boyish 
misdemeanor. “ When I was at Harvard I got into dis- 
grace by stealing a professor’s silk hat. He had to 


BROKEN TIES AND BREAKING HEARTS 83 

walk home from a lecture bareheaded and took a 
severe cold. Father came near dropping me then, 
but it was my last scrape. Boys will be boys. I’ll 
stand by you, Ted.” 

“ But — but it isn’t anything like that, grandpa. I — 
I can’t let mamma and — and Gail work as hard as they 
do. There’s seven of them in all — five children under 
Gail’s age and mamma’s not strong. I ought to help 
her. It makes me ashamed to have everything while 
they have nothing. They haven’t enough to cover 
them, and — can hardly keep warm. A — a boy can’t let 
his mother suffer when he is big enough to prevent it. 
If — if you would only let her come here — there’s 
enough of everything for us all ! — then I could go back 
to school and study. But as it is I can’t keep up my 
lessons, I can’t do anything right while my mother 
lacks so much.” 

“Your mother! What do you mean? Has she 
dared to write to you, visit you, try to get around you 
with her whining tricks after giving you to us to be 
our own forever ? ” cried grandpa, springing to his feet 
in hot anger. 

“ No, sir,” answered Ted with equal warmth. “ She 
has not written to me — at least not until I had written 
to her — she has not visited me ; but I have visited her.” 

“Without my permission?” thundered Mr. Weston. 

“ Now, father, don’t be hasty,” interfered grandma 
soothingly. “ Give the boy a chance to tell his story. 
I’m sure Theodore has not meant to defy your 
authority.” 

“No, I haven’t,” cried Ted eagerly, casting a love- 
look at the pleader. “ I had no thought of mamma 
when I wrote for permission to spend my vacation with 


84 


GAIL WESTON 


Horace Franksin. But Rob Thompson was called home 
on the very day we were to start and wanted me to 
wait for him. He was kept a week, his mother was 
sick. His talk about her set me to thinking of my 
mother and of how little I had ever cared for her. I 
had nothing to do. So partly to kill time and partly 
out of curiosity I took the cars and went to Greenville/’ 

“ Without lisping a word of your intention to me, 
sir, you deliberately spent my money to go where you 
knew I would not want you to go ? ” interrupted his 
grandfather wrathfully. 

“ I can see no reason why you should not wish me 
to visit my mother, grandpa?” quickly responded Ted. 

“ You do not need to see my reasons for anything I 
command, young man,” answered the gentleman testily. 
“ That I do not wish you to do a thing should be 
sufficient reason for your not doing it.” 

“ You had never told me not to visit my mother,” 
said the lad doggedly, though his grandmother’s eyes 
kept him respectful. 

“Why did you not write and ask my permission 
before you started ? ” 

“ I — I wanted to get back in time to meet Rob and 
hated to delay for an answer.” 

“ Are you telling me the whole truth, Theodore 
Weston, or only a part of it?” 

“ Only a part of it, sir. I feared that if I asked 
your permission you would not give it.” 

“ And you were determined to have your own way 
at any cost ? ” 

“ I was determined to see and know my mother.” 

“ It was a very natural desire, David,” commented 
grandma at this juncture. 


BROKEN TIES AND BREAKING HEARTS 85 

“ Perhaps it was. It ought to be a natural desire 
for a boy brought up as tenderly as this one has been 
to be loyal to those who have taken care of him. Well, 
sir, go on. You saw your mother and a precious sight 
she is, to be sure.” 

Ted’s face flushed. “ Don’t speak of her in that 
way,” he cried. 

“ I shall speak of her as I please. I have paid enough 
for the privilege.” 

“ Not to me, grandpa. She is my mother and loves 
me and I love her.” 

Mr. Weston laughed, a hard, bitter laugh. “ Say 
on,” he said. “ You are worthy of her. She loves 
you and you love her, but what about those who have 
nourished and cherished, fed and clothed you ? ” 

“ 1 was coming to that, sir,” answered Ted, his face 
a miniature copy of the older face before him. “ I felt 
it my duty to come to you, to thank you — and to say 
that since my mother and her little children need my 
help I must give up school and go to them,” firmly. 

Something like a groan fell from the lips of the man 
who listened. “It is your father’s folly repeated,” he 
murmured. “ She ruined him, she will ruin you. She 
has been the curse of my life. She took my only son 

from me and put him in his grave, now ” He broke 

off with a bitter laugh. “ I ought to have known better 
than to expect anything else.” 

“ Maria always meant well, father,” murmured Mrs. 
Weston gently, her eyes upon the young face so white 
and tense with feeling. 

" * Meant .well ! ’ ” echoed the gentleman. ‘ Who says 
she didn’t mean well ? But meaning well neither feeds 
a man’s children nor saves him from going to the devil. 


86 


GAIL WESTON 


‘ Meant well ! ’ She’d better have meant ill and done 
well.” 

“ Explain yourself, grandfather,” cried Ted. “ What 
has my mother done? How did she send my father to 
the devil ? He was your son and you say he went to the 
devil. That’s not what grandma has taught me con- 
cerning him.” 

Grandpa’s eyes narrowed as he listened, his mouth 
set, his lips were like a single thread of scarlet across 
his fine old face. 

“ You will find out soon enough for yourself if yon 
go to your mother,” he said. “ There is small need of 
explanations. Take your own course. Ha! ha! You 
will do that anyway. I ought to have known better 
than to take you — expecting anything of you — with 
her blood in your veins. But remember this, you 
choose between us this day. When you cross my 
threshold to go to your mother, you cross it for the 
last time. Do you understand? For the last time. 
You close the door forever on your relations with this 
house and all those under this roof; on your educa- 
tion, your inheritance, everything. Now choose.” 

Ted was in a towering passion by this time. Yet he 
cast a look of anguish toward the beloved face of his 
grandmother. Her eyes were full of tears, her lips 
trembling as she listened. 

“ You leave me little choice, sir,” was the reply he 
made to the haughty old man. No son could fail to 
choose the side of a poor, overworked mother, es- 
pecially after hearing her traduced as you have traduced 
her this afternoon.” 

“Traduced! Abigail, do you hear the boy? Tra- 
duced! His mother! by me! Are all boys fools? 




SHi 


, fc&Ato 

de Mf>LIER 


‘You have spoken the word. There is 
nothing further to he said.’” 


Page 87 


BROKEN TIES AND BREAKING HEARTS 87 

Perhaps the girl monopolized all the sense of the family 
and I passed her by, poor little thing, because she was 
a girl and plain. That’s where I made my mistake. 
I have traduced Maria Allen! I wonder why God 
makes such trashy, no-account women. Perhaps he 
knows, but it passes my understanding, as also how their 
silliness bewitches men. A long face, a few tears — 
pshaw ! It’s a great misfortune that a fool should not 
look like one. Her very plainness should have recom- 
mended that girl-child - to us, Abigail. She at least 
would never have trapped men into believing her what 
she was not by drooping eyes, and dimples, and blushes. 
She would have had to reckon on facts when she 
wanted to try the bewitching dodge. Well, sir,” turn- 
ing to Ted, “ have you made up your mind ? ” 

“ I shall go to my mother.” 

“ You have spoken the word. There is nothing 
further to be said except that you will oblige me by 
taking yourself and your belongings off my premises 
as soon as possible.” 

“O grandpa!” cried Mrs. Weston. “Don’t be too 
hard on the boy. You are crushing me as well as him,” 
a break in the soft voice. 

“ Nonsense. You ought to be used to this thing by 
now, mother. That boy’s not crushed. Not he. The 
vision of Maria Allen and how magnificently he can 
help her by giving her one more to support braces him 
up. He’s exhilarated. The crushing will come later 

” The strident voice stopped short, the fine old 

face quivered. “ His day will come— but it isn’t here 
yet,” he muttered, as he went out of the room shutting 
the door noisily after him. 

“ Theodore ! ” cried grandma. “ Oh, my darling ! 


88 


GAIL WESTON 


God grant you are not making a mistake. Oh, my 
baby ! ” putting both trembling arms about the youth 
and drawing his head to her breast. “ My baby — my 
baby’s baby ! God grant you are not making a mistake.” 

The boy gulped down a sob, his face breaking up 
from its cold stillness to a sea of emotion. “ If it is a 
mistake, grandma, I don’t know it,” he whispered. “ If 
it did not look like duty I could never leave you, never 

give up my home ” Here he broke down and cried. 

Yet with great determination he went up to his room 
a few minutes later to gather together his belongings. 

He was bending over his grip, teeth shut, eyes red, 
when Lovisa Hines — a servant who had been in the 
house more years than he had lived — thrust her head 
through his chamber door. He merely glanced up while 
she sat down heavily on a chair in front of him. 

“ I hope it’s not flying in the face of Providence you 
air this hour, Teddy,” she began without any prelimina- 
ries. “ But if you air I’ve come to tell you that Provi- 
dence is God, and where his face is he is. You’ll 
always find him where he’s most needed an’ when things 
is most desprit. You’re as like — you and David Wes- 
ton — as two peas in a pod. I’ve always said it an’ 
I say it now, an’ it ain’t in nater for sich to git along 
together after they’ve both come to years. But you 
both mean well, so did your pa before you — an’ he’s 
like you both too. Don’t you go off with anger in your 
heart against him that’s fed, an’ clothed, an’ nussed you 
this many a year, yes, an’ that loves you too.” 

Ted’s lips quivered, but he said no word and Lovisa 
went on. 

“ I ain’t a goin’ to say nothin’ against your mother 


BROKEN TIES AND BREAKING HEARTS 89 

“ You’d better not,” blurted out the lad fiercely, 
lifting flashing eyes. 

“’Cause there ain’t no need,” went on the woman im- 
perturbably. “ But this I will say — an’ the good Lord 
help you never to forgit it — that it never mends any- 
thing to git downhearted an’ discouraged an’ it’s no 
part of a man to do that way, anyways. You’ll have to 
fight the blues ’cause they’re in your blood, but there’s 
other an’ better things in your blood too, an’ everybody 
has their share of the bad. If you make a good fight in 
the name of the Lord, there won’t anybody down you. 
There’s nothin’ like the Lord an’ good fightin’ muscle 
to carry a man through the dumps, don’t you forgit 
that. An’ no matter who nags, an’ groans, an’ grunts 
at you — I’m not speaking no names nor sayin’ a word 
against anybody, there’s no call to — why you just keep 
chipper. God’s not only in heaven but beside every 
mortal man an’ woman, an’ there’s no need of givin’ 
up the ghost nor the battle while he’s ’round.” 

“ I don’t know what you mean, Lovisa,” said Ted 
to this. 

“ An’ you hain’t no need to know, not this minnit, 
’cept only that God’s on every man’s side that needs 
him an’ll take him. Discouragement is the worst devil 
there is this side of the lower regions, ’specially for a 
Weston, take my word for that. It killed your pa, an’ 
he as han’some, an’ eddicated, an’ perlite as the next 
one. But he couldn’t stand naggin’ — flesh aft’ blood 
of his kind can’t — an’ he sort ’r b’lieved all he heard 
agin himself an’ his an’ he sunk under it. Don’t you do 
it, an’ don’t let it drive you to the wine when it is red 
an’ giveth its color in the cup. Jest you say ‘ I’m a’doin’ 
the best I know, an’ if I ain’t, the Lord help me to do 


90 


GAIL WESTON 


better, but anyways I’m bound to be cheerful/ an’ you 
whistle an’ sing, for the worst that conies can be 
mended an’ the darkest road is brightened when the 
sun comes out as it always does sooner or later. You 
keep the blue devil out an’ remember, however it may 
seem, that there’s nobody in this house but that loves 
you an’ always will and wishes you well. Yes,” as Ted 
lifted his eyes. “ Yes, your gran’ther most of all. If he 
didn’t love you and didn’t keer for you d’you s’pose 
he’d be way down in the dumps now, it takin’ the best 
woman on airth to jest keep him from cussin’? He 
was hard on you — he was hard on your pa — but mind 
this, his heart’s soft enough toward both of you an’ 
it’s himself he hates most of all.” 

The woman arose and walked to the door, came back 
and lifted the brown head with her two big hands 
and placed a kiss on the smooth brow. “ I’ve kissed 
you many a time when you were a little shaver,” she 
said, wiping her eyes vigorously, “ an’ I won’t say it 
doesn’t go agin me to see you turned out’r house an’ 
home for what isn’t wuth it. But sometimes it isn’t 
the wuth of the thing we suffer for that the Lord’s 
a considerin’ so much as the wuth of it to us. Like’s 
not I’ll praise him some day for lettin’ you make a fool 
of yourself, an’ so givin’ him a chance to make a man 
of you. For that’s the rale work he has on hand, the 
makin’ of men an’ women out’r such trash as we be. 
Good-by. Keep your courage, keep away from strong 
drink, remember you have friends here who always 
pray for you, an’ you’ll be back here some day or I’m 
no prophet.” 

Grandma’s whispered words of good-by had some- 
thing of the same meaning as Lovisa’s. “ I shall 


BROKEN TIES AND BREAKING HEARTS 9 1 

always love and pray for you. When things look worst 
think of that and that Jesus loves and cares for you. 
And O Ted, never give way to discouragement, never 
touch wine or anything that will intoxicate, and may 
God protect and bring you back to me.” 

That night two old faces looked at each other across 
the supper-table; the one drawn and pale, but hard; 
the other tear-stained and tremulous, but sweet and 
patient. 

“We shall have to begin life again where we broke 
it off twelve years ago, mother,” said David Weston 
in what was meant to be a cheerful tone. 

“ That isn’t possible,” his wife replied. 

“ I’m sorry we ever took the boy,” continued the gen- 
tleman with an anxious glance at his wife’s face. 

“ Don’t wish it,” she cried with sudden fire. “ Don’t 
begrudge me the happy, happy years I’ve had with my 
boy’s boy ! ” Then she wept unrestrainedly. Lovisa 
and Mr. Weston took her from the table to her bed. 
There she lay a month before she was able to creep 
back to life again. 


VII 


NOT FOREVER 


JED did not go back to school. He had no desire 



X to meet his old comrades or to say good-by. He 
wrote a few hasty lines to Horace asking him to pack 
up his belongings and forward them together .with his 
trunk, to Greenville. His two chums shook their 
heads over one ominous sentence in this letter — the 
only sentence outside of business : “ It’s all up with me. 
I’m done with school.” 

“ Too bad ! ” sighed Rob. “ There isn’t his equal 
among us either in study or fun.” 

“ Or in heroism,” answered Horace. “ I envy him 
his power of self-sacrifice.” 

Each of these young men thought he knew the person 
of whom he spoke. Perhaps they knew him as well 
as he knew himself. 

The very afternoon that Rob and Horace were mak- 
ing these flattering comments about him, Ted — valise 
in hand — was lifting the old-fashioned knocker on his 
his mother’s front door. Dolly opened it. 

“ You here again ! ” she cried. “ What brought 
you ? ” 

“ Aren’t you glad to see me ? ” he inquired. 

“Ye-es, some. Why didn’t you leave your grip at 
the hotel ? ” 

“ Because I’ve come to stay and intend to live here 
with the rest of you.” 

9 2 


NOT FOREVER 93 

“ Mercy ! I’d like to know where we can put you. 
Every room and bed is full.” 

“ Oh, we’ll manage. Tom and I can bunk together 
if necessary.” Ted pushed his way past his sister and 
dropped into the patchwork-covered chair. The faded 
carpet, the dusty chairs, the dreary poverty of all about 
him made his heart sink. He wanted to cover his 
eyes and cry. It took all the manhood in him not to 
do so. He pursed his lips instead to whistle. Strangely 
enough “ Home, sweet home,” was what came. He 
stopped abruptly and asked for Alice. 

“ She’s out. Gone to see Emma Watts. Emma’s 
got a piano. She’s going to take lessons. She asked 
me up to see it, but I didn’t care to go,” with a toss of 
her head. “ I’m not fond of looking at other people’s 
things — things I can’t have myself.” 

“Would you like a piano?” 

“Would I! I’d rather know how to play like Ruth 
Banscombe does than to be queen of England.” 

“ You shall learn some day. That’s one thing we’ll 
get as soon as I’ve found work. I suppose you sing?” 

“ Some. It costs money to buy a piano, Ted.” 

“ Oh, not so very much. You can get a good one — 
plenty good enough for a beginner — for three or four 
hundred dollars.” 

“ And you don’t call that much ! ” cried the girl, 
opening her eyes very wide. 

“ I guess I’ve cost grandpa all of that for just my 
clothes and spending money the last year, to say 
nothing of schooling.” 

Dolly eyed the speaker severely. “You’re wicked. 
That much money hasn’t been spent on this whole 
family since I was born.” 


94 


GAIL WESTON 


“ I suppose not. That’s why I’ve left grandpa and 
come home.” 

“ You’ve left your grandpa? Not for good and all? ” 

“ Yes, for good and all. I didn’t think it fair that I 
should have everything and you nothing.” 

“ And how is your leaving your grandfather going 
to help that? I don’t see that we shall have any more 
with one more to share everything. It’s little enough 
we have now.” 

“ But I’m going to work and earn money,” explained 
Ted, trying not to yield to the disheartening power of 
the girl’s words. “ You must understand, Dolly, that 
I’m not here to be a burden on mamma, but a help to 
her.” 

Dolly’s nose went up. She evidently thought little 
of his abilities in a money-earning direction. “ A boy 
like you who never did anything in his life but study 
and wear fine clothes,” she said disdainfully. 

“ Yes, a boy like me. Can’t a fellow begin? Doesn’t 
every man have to begin?” cried Ted nettled. 

“ What can you do ? Where will you begin ? ” 

“ Oh, anywhere,” answering her last question first. 
“I can do bookkeeping, or clerking. You’ll see. I’ll 
manage to get work before many days and then things 
will change.” 

“ I hope so.” 

“ I know so. Where shall I take my bag, Dolly ? 
I have a few clothes I ought to unpack before they get 
creased. Where’s Tom’s room?” 

Dolly started and reddened. “ Tom hasn’t any room,” 
she replied. “ He sleeps in the unfinished chamber over 
the kitchen. There’s no closet to hang things in and 
only one bed. Benny sleeps with him.” 


NOT FOREVER 95 

“ Show me the way to it,” commanded Ted in his 
most peremptory tone and with set lips. 

He looked about the forlorn room to which Dolly 
led him, after she had gone downstairs, and fiery tears 
filled his eyes. No closet, no shelf, no bureau; an 
uncarpeted floor, a bed with a disreputable looking quilt 
spread over it, a nondescript pillow; an old chair, a 
rickety table set close to the wall to keep it from fall- 
ing; these constituted the furnishings of the chamber. 
Ted discovered the condition of the table when he 
placed a few articles upon it and it tumbled over. He 
was almost afraid to hang his coat across the foot- 
board of the bed lest vermin might be hidden there. 
He went downstairs and asked for a hammer and some 
nails. 

“ I don’t believe there’s a nail in this house though 
you may be able to pull a few out of the boards in the 
shed,” answered Dolly to this request. “ No. We 
haven’t a hammer, but there’s an axe. Can’t you use 
that?” 

“ I shall have to,” said Ted, feeling utterly dismayed 
over the lack of everything. “ Isn’t there some place 
where I can buy a hammer and some nails or hooks? 
I prefer hooks. If I had a board or two I could fix up 
a kind of closet. Say, Dolly,” brightening suddenly, 
“ if I get some cloth can’t you make me a curtain to 
hang for a door? I’ve got to have some place to keep 
my clothes from the dust.” 

“ I’m not much with a needle,” admitted Dorothea. 
“ But either Abby or Allie could make a curtain for 
you all right.” 

“ Then put on your hat and we’ll go and get some 
cloth at once,” said Ted. “Where are Gail and 


GAIL WESTON 


96 


mamma? Is nobody at home but you? Where are 
Ben and Pet ? ” 

“ Gail’s helping Mrs. Banscombe. She comes home 
nights. Mrs. Banscombe’s sick and nervous and no- 
body suits her but Abby — she has tried two women from 
the city too. Mother’s up at Jenkinses’ making over a 
dress. The boys are off picking cranberries. Tom was 
awful mad ’cause mamma made him stay away from 
school. But Mr. Fiske said she might have all the 
cranberries the boys could gather in a day, and she 
couldn’t afford to lose them just for school. I guess 
Tom and Ben got more than a bushel this morning. 
Pet’s playing dolls with Rosy Mellin.” 

“You ought to be at school, Dolly; you and Alice.” 

“ Then who’d keep house ? Allie went all last winter 
and it’s my turn this winter, but I haven’t a thing fit 
to wear. My clothes do not last like Al’s, and she had 
the last new dress. Mother never gets a chance to sew 
for us and there’s nothing to make over now anyway. 
It takes all my time to cook and clean house, and Allie 
mends and mends. Old clothes need mending all the 
time and she’s as slow as cold molasses. She has to set 
every stitch as if she were making a silk gown ’stead 
of patching old calico shirts and dresses. If it wasn’t 
for Abby the whole house would go to rack and ruin. 
She does the washing mornings and what’s left of the 
mending, evenings, and generally curls and combs Pet 
and Ben before she starts to the squire’s. She’s trying 
to teach Ben to wash Pet and himself and help make 
the beds. She says we must all work. It isn’t fair to 
leave everything to A1 and me.” 

“ She’s right too, but I wish you wouldn’t call her 
Abby, Dolly. I can’t get used to it and I don’t want 


NOT FOREVER 97 

to. My sister has always been Gail to me and it’s so 
much prettier than Abby.” 

“ Oh, I’m willing enough to call her Gail if I can 
remember in time.” 

“ I’ll help you. Whenever you say Abby and I’m 
around, I’ll count one for the first offense and two for 
the second and so on. We’ll see how long it takes you 
to learn a new lesson.” 

It was difficult for these two young persons to come 
to a decision as to what should be purchased for Ted’s 
curtain. Not that there were so many kinds of goods 
to choose from either. A couple of pieces of denim 
one blue, one brown ; a few remnants of highly colored 
and greatly beflowered silkalene; and a bit of delicate 
silk trailing green vines over a white ground; these 
constituted all of Mrs. Brewer’s stock. The denim was 
condemned by both buyers as too plain and coarse, the 
flowers on the silkalene were too large to suit Ted’s 
taste, over the silk they both hung for a while un- 
decided, but finally took it as the best thing the 
shop afforded, neither of them considering how out of 
place it would be in that unfinished and unfurnished 
attic. 

Two dozen hooks, a handsaw, a hammer, a pound of 
nails, and a few pieces of planed board — these last 
obtained at a joiner’s shop — completed their purchases 
and depleted Ted’s purse to an alarming extent. He 
was at work, fitting a board across one corner of Tom’s 
room, Dolly holding the nails, both of them flushed with 
triumph as the closet took form and shape, when Allie’s 
voice was heard below. 

“ What are you doing, Doll ? ” she cried. " Emma’s 
got the loveliest piano and she can play one tune.” 

G 


98 


GAIL WESTON 


“ Who cares,” screamed back her sister, “ I’ve been 
promised a piano myself. Then I’ll play as good as 
any one. Won’t I, Ted?” 

“ We’ll have you the finest player in this town,” 
answered the youth enthusiastically. 

“ Who’s up there and who has promised you a 
piano ? ” asked Alice, following her questions in person 
and stopping in amazement at the chamber door at 
sight of Ted in his shirt sleeves, hammer in hand. 

He dropped it to run and kiss her. “ Do you know 
you’re awfully pretty, Allie ? ” he said, looking frankly 
into her flushed face. Alice flushed the deeper at this, 
but she did not tell him — as she might have done — how 
handsome he looked with his shining eyes, his cap 
pushed up from his white brow. 

“ Don’t believe a word he says, Al,” cried Dolly 
jealously. “He’s always saying such things. He told 
me over and over that I was pretty when he was here 
before, but he didn’t mean it.” 

“ Indeed I did,” protested the youth. “ There are not 
two prettier girls in the United States. I’m proud of 
you both. I can’t for the life of me understand how 

Gail ” He stopped in confusion. He had been 

about to say, “ how Gail happens to be such a fright 
compared to the rest of you.” 

“ Does mother know you’re here ? ” asked Alice to 
fill the uncomfortable silence that followed. “ I’m 
so surprised. I thought you were at school.” 

“ I was until a few days ago, but I’m through.” 

“Not forever?” cried the girl. 

“Yes, I fear it may be forever,” answered Ted 
gravely. 

“ He has come to stay,” volunteered Dolly. 


NOT FOREVER 99 

“Not forever?” again cried Allie in something like 
dismay. 

“ He has brought his things,” said Dolly. “ He’s 
making a closet for his clothes.” 

“ I’ve brought precious few of my things,” corrected 
Ted. “ My trunk will be here later. Are you sorry 
I’ve come Allie ? ” for Alice still stood with that look 
of dismay on her face. 

“ No-o,” she answered slowly, “ not sorry, but ” 

“Not glad. Hey?” Ted’s boy face flushed. He 
turned back to his work. “Pass me a hook, Dolly, 
please,” he said in a subdued manner. 

He heard Alice go down over the stairs and said 
uneasily, “ I’m not overwelcome, it seems.” 

“ It’s not that,” replied Dolly confidentially. “ It’s 
Al’s turn to get supper ready and she’s wondering what 
she’ll give you to eat. If ’twas my turn I’d be about 
crazy.” 

“ I suppose you haven’t much on hand, Dolly ? ” 
said Ted questioningly and in a very sober voice. 
“ You mustn’t make a stranger of me any more, you 
know. What the rest of you eat, I’ll eat. You’re to 
keep no secrets from me either. Do you understand ? ” 
as Dolly regarded him keenly. “ What have you in 
the house ? ’ 

“Not a thing but stale bread and cranberry sauce. 
I stewed a lot of cranberries this morning ” 

“ Wiv ’lasses,” added a sweet little voice, as Pet’s 
big eyes came over the edge of the stairs. “ Does you 
lub camb’e’s an’ ’lasses, Ted?” 

The lad made a wry face though he laughed as 
he drew the child to his arms. “ I can eat bread and 
butter,” he said. 


Lore, 


100 


GAIL WESTON 


“ But there is no butter,” declared Dolly. “ I said 
stale bread and cranberry sauce, and I meant it. Abby 
— no, Gail ” 

“ One,” cried Ted. 

“ It isn’t fair ! I didn’t know we had begun yet.” 

“ Then I’ll let you off this time, but mind, we begin 
now.” 

“All right. I was just going to say that Ab — no, 
Gail,” with a gasp — “ intends to set bread to-night and 
I mustn’t forget to send for yeast.” 

“ Dolly,” said Ted, “ I’ll put up the rest of these 
hooks in the morning. There’s enough to get along 
with for one night. Suppose you go down and get the 
supper ready while Allie sews on my curtain. I’ll go 
and buy something nice for supper if you will,” seeing 
the girl hesitate. 

“ Allie’ll have to get it to-morrow night, then.” 

“ I guess she’ll be willing. If she isn’t, I’ll get it — 
Benny and I.” 

" A bargain,” cried Dolly, clapping her hands as she 
ran down the stairs, Ted following with Pet in his arms. 
He went to the kitchen where Dolly was already trying 
to coax a fire, ere he started down the street. 

“ What do we need most,” he asked. 

“ Everything,” was the prompt reply. 

“ That’s no answer,” he said. “ I know nothing about 
housekeeping. If you can only have a couple of dollars 
worth of stuff, what will you have? Make a list.” 

“ Sugar, for one thing. Mother has been without it 
in her tea for a week, and we’ve had to eat molasses 
on our oatmeal.” 

“ Sugar,” wrote Ted on a slip of paper he drew from 
his pocket. “ Next ! ” 


NOT FOREVER 


IOI 


“ Butter, I suppose.” 

Sure. I forgot that. What next, Dolly ? ” 

“ We’ve about enough flour to set one batch of bread 
and oatmeal enough for breakfast,” answered Dolly, 
going into the pantry to reconnoiter. “ There’s some 
salt and tea enough for another day, and ” 

“Eggs,” supplied Pet. 

“Yes, Mrs. Banscombe sent us some by Abby ” 

“ One ! ” cried Ted triumphantly, pulling out his 
memorandum book. 

“ Not one,” objected Pet, catching at Ted’s hand. 
“ Not one. Her brought five — six — two — ten.” 

Dolly laughed. “ He doesn’t mean the eggs, Pet,” 
she explained. “Ab — Gail brought us a dozen fresh 
eggs from Mrs. Banscombe and a quart of milk.” 

“ Then we can have an omelette for supper.” 

“ I can’t make it. I never even heard of such a thing 
before,” exclaimed Dolly. 

“ I can make it. I’ve done that often. Go on with 
your list, Dolly.” 

“ Why, that’s all. We have plenty of cranberries and 
some molasses, and — and potatoes — a bushel that the 
squire sent down last week, though a peck of them is 
gone.” 

Ted looked puzzled as he stood biting the end of his 
pencil. “ What do other folks have ? ” he aslfced. 
“ Raisins, tapioca, rice, and ” 

“ The fatted calf,” finished Dolly with very red 
cheeks and sparkling eyes. “ I’d just like to live for a 
little while as some folks do — the squire or your 
grandpa, Ted.” 

“ I wish you might,” answered the youth heartily, 
“ and ” — with sudden determination — “ you shall yet.” 


102 


GAIL WESTON 


When Ted returned from the store he left his pur- 
chases with Dolly and went into the sitting-room 
where Alice was busy making the curtain. He watched 
her for a while silently, noting the dainty stitches 
she set and the unusual flush on her fair cheeks. 

“It is pretty, isn’t it?” he asked, referring to the 
silk. 

“ Oh, very ! ” Alice gave the delicate fabric a loving 
pat ere she took another stitch. 

“You love pretty things, Allie?” 

“ Yes, when they’re soft and clinging, like this.” 

“ Allie,” continued Ted, drawing his chair nearer 
to the girl’s side “ you do not dislike me, do you ? ” 

“ How could I ? ” she exclaimed with a swift glance 
into his face. “ No one could,” positively. Then she 
went on with her work. 

“ Yet you are sorry to see me here, are you not? ” 

The fair head drooped a little, the flush on the cheek, 
deepened. Then suddenly — “ Can you not see,” she 
cried — Alice was seldom impetuous — “ that you are as 
much out of place in this house as this curtain will be 
in that old back chamber?” 

He started. “ Strange that neither Dolly nor I 
thought of that,” he said, referring to the curtain. 
“ You’re right. It will be out of place.” 

“It is only fit for a parlor or some lovely, white- 
curtained room,” she replied. 

“And you think me as little fitted for real, hard, 
everyday use as that is?” he questioned, his boy 
cheek hot with indignation. “Well, I’m here.” 

“ So is the curtain,” she sighed. 

“ And I have been guilty of bringing into the house 
two useless things to worry you ? ” he went on warmly. 


NOT FOREVER IO3 

“ I can throw that stuff into the fire and I can go away 
again.” 

The girl’s hands closed on the silk he tried to snatch 
from her. “ It is here,” she said. “ You have paid your 
money for it. It will do if it is not suitable.” 

He looked at her, an angry light in his gray eyes. 
“ I suppose that is the way mamma and Gail will look 
at my coming too ? ” he said bitterly. 

“ Gail ? Oh, Abby, you mean,” began Alice, but he 
cut her short. 

“ No, I do not mean Abby. I mean Gail — Gail Wes- 
ton, my sister — and please call her by her right name 
.when you speak of her to me,” he cried wrathfully. 

The blue eyes lifted for a moment regarded the 
speaker with some perplexity, if not regret. “ Gail is 
not like me,” the owner of the eyes said. “ She is much 
better. I am like mamma,” consciously using the term 
he had applied to his mother, “ I worry about every- 
thing. I do not always remember right off, that ‘ all 
things work together for good.’ I’m not so well ac- 
quainted with the Bible as — as Gail is.” The voice 
sank very low and hesitated over the Christian name. 
“ She never forgets.” 

Ted’s anger died as he listened. A dull pain took 
its place. He then was to be accepted as one of the 
“ all things that work together for good to them who 
love God.” One of the hard, trying things which 
Christians accept — as men swallow medicine — for their 
betterment. His heart rebelled, but before he could 
utter another word Dolly burst into the room. 

“ Mother’s coming and that egg stuff’s not made yet,” 
she cried. 

“ It doesn’t need to be until we’re ready to eat it,” 


104 


GAIL WESTON 


answered Ted seizing his hat. “ Keep the griddle hot, 
Dolly, please.” Then he plunged through the door. 

The two girls watched him from the window as he 
climbed the hill. “ He’s the handsomest boy in the 
world,” said one. 

“ And the bravest, or he never would have come here 
to share our fortunes,” added the other. 

“ The most useless too, I fear, when his money’s all 
gone,” sighed the first speaker. 

“ I don’t know about that,” answered Alice slowly. 
“ He has done very good work on that closet, I think.” 

“ So he has,” assented Dolly, “ and he’s as open- 
handed as a prince. I’ve made up my mind to stand 
by him whatever comes.” 


VIII 


A DIVIDED HOUSE 



HEN Mrs. Rollins perceived who it was who 


was hastening to meet her, she stopped in the 


road with a little cry of amazement. 

“ Theodore ! What has happened ? Why are you 
not at school? Have you quarreled with your grand- 
father ? ” she exclaimed all in one breath. 

“ No,” answered Ted. “ I haven’t quarreled .with 
grandpa, but he has quarreled with me, which amounts 
to the same thing.” 

“ And I have been the cause of it. I’m sure,” went 
on the woman in a distracted way, “ unhappy creature 
that I am! It’s my misfortune to injure all those I 
love, I always have. And you have lost your schooling, 
and your nice home, and — your property” — with a 
gasp. “ O Theodore, don’t tell me you’ve lost the 
property.” 

“ I’ve lost everything I might have had,” answered 
the boy, “but please don’t reproach me, mamma; and 
do not ask me any questions now. I can’t stand it. 
After supper I will tell you all and you may scold me 
all you please. But not now.” 

“ I do not want to scold you,” replied Mrs. Rollins, 
clinging to the hand he placed on hers, and together 
they walked to the house. 

Ted had just dropped the omelet on a hot plate, 
preparatory to placing it on the table, when Tom and 


io 5 


io6 


GAIL WESTON 


Benny appeared at the kitchen door. Benny sprang 
forward with a glad cry, letting his end of the big bag 
the two carried, fall, while Tom pushed his cap up with 
a motion of surprise and said “ Hullo ! ” 

“ Hullo, yourself,” shouted Ted. “ Are you glad to 
see me ? ” 

“ I’m not sorry,” responded Tom cautiously. “ What 
brought you ? ” 

“ Mamma.” Ted intercepted his mother’s adoring 
glance as he said this and answered it with interest. 
“ Get to the table in a hurry, boys,” he said gaily. 
“ Omelet tastes best when4iot.” 

“ When does Gail get home ? ” asked her brother as 
they arose from the table. 

“ Soon after supper,” answered his mother. 

“When it isn’t prayer-meeting night or Mrs. Bans- 
combe is not in extra pain,” explained Dolly. “ She’ll 
be early to-night. There’s bread to set.” 

“ I must go and meet her,” said Ted. 

“ Take me,” cried Benny. 

“And me,” begged Pet. 

“ Not to-night,” said Ted. “ I want to see her alone.” 
He met his mother’s eyes. “ I will have my talk with 
you first, mamma,” he assured her. Yet how he dreaded 
it; how he dreaded too, what Gail might say. But he 
wanted it over with, he would know the worst. With 
his mother alone in the sitting-room he told his story, 
while in the other room the girls cleared the table 
and Tom studied. 

“ And I am the cause of all this,” groaned Mrs. 
Rollins as the recital ended. “ This is what I have 
suffered and waited for all these years? O Theodore, 
it seems more than I can bear,” and she began to cry. 


A DIVIDED HOUSE 


1 07 


“ You’ve lost your schooling, your property. My last 
hope is gone. I have kept up all these years thinking 
you would remember your mother when you came into 
your own. I’ve done without, and pinched, and strug- 
gled, hoping that by and by it would end. But it never 
will. I know David Weston. He will never forgive 
you or take you back. I had a right to some of his 
wealth, so had you and Abby. I was willing he should 
make up to you all he had cheated me out of and now 

” she stopped talking from sheer inability to go 

on. 

“ And now you have only me,” said the boy with 
some bitterness. “ I thought perhaps you’d rather have 
me — and what help I might be able to give you — than 
wait for an uncertainty. Who knows that either you 
or I will outlive grandpa. He’s as strong as ever he 
was. ‘ A bird in the hand’s worth two in the bush.’ ” 

The woman lifted her head and turned to the speaker 
quickly. “ What do you mean ? ” she asked a trifle 
eagerly. “ Did — did your grandfather give you some- 
thing — a share in — a promise of ” She broke off 

confusedly as the speaking eyes of her son regarded 
her almost scornfully. 

“Not a cent,” he laughed. “ Not a promise, nothing 
but a command never to darken his doors again. I am 
the bird in the hand, mamma — a bird of ill omen it 
would seem — but ready to fly to the bush at a single 
word from you.” 

There was no mistaking Ted’s meaning now. “ You 
take me up so quickly,” whimpered the woman, “ and 
I am so confused I can scarcely think or speak. If 
you want to break my heart, speak of leaving me now. 
What have I left of all my hopes except you ? ” 


io8 


GAIL WESTON 


“ Nothing,” answered the youth quickly, “ and I’m 
a poor article. I’ve made a mistake, mamma, and you 
are partly to blame for it. You appeared so glad to see 
me the first time I came, I thought you would be 
gladder still if I came to stay. I am here.” His lips 
closed sharply. 

“ Well, jve’ll have to make the best of it,” said Mrs. 
Rollins weakly. “We all make mistakes. I shouldn’t 
mind if I had plenty,” sighing. 

“ But I want you to mind, mamma, and whether you 
have plenty or not,” cried Ted. “ It’s the minding I 
care about. Do you suppose I’d have come if I hadn’t 
thought you wanted me? I’m not afraid of work. I 
can earn more than enough to keep myself. I am here 
not to burden, but to help you.” 

“ You have never had to work, Theodore.” 

“ Which may be the reason I should begin now.” 

“ But — but I’d so much rather have you a gentleman 
as you were last summer,” whined the woman in a 
dreary monotone, “ one who doesn’t have to work 
and can keep his hands white and never smell sweaty. 
I can’t bear a shabby or sweaty man ! Your father was 
so handsome and gentlemanly when I first met him. 
He studied law then. But after your grandfather dis- 
owned him, he gave the law up because he said it would 
take years before he could make a living at it, so he 
tried something else. First he clerked, and that 
wasn’t so bad, but when he began to carpenter and — 
and came home with soiled hands, I couldn’t bear it. 
He didn’t seem the same man I had married. And now 
you talk about work. Oh, how full the world is of dis- 
appointment ! ” Mrs. Rollins sobbed softly. 

Ted looked at her in a kind of despair. He could not 


A DIVIDED HOUSE 


109 


think of a word to say; indeed, he seemed incapable of 
thinking at all just then. There was a sense of loss, 
of aloneness upon him. He could scarcely breathe — 
wanted to get out — and groped about for his cap 
as he stumbled to his feet. 

“ Theodore/’ said his mother brokenly, “ you’re 
surely not going out without kissing me after all I 

have lost — all I have had to bear ” she could not go 

on. 

The boy stopped short, his hand on the door-knob. 
He stepped back obediently and stooped to kiss her 
cheek though he was conscious of a strong feeling of 
repulsion. As his lips touched her she threw her arms 
about his neck and drew his burning face to her wet 
one. He felt angry. He wanted to fling her off and 
run, yet he held himself still. “ You will always love 
your poor mother ? ” she sobbed. “ Promise me that, 
Theodore, and that you will forgive me for coming 
between you and a fortune. Do not lay it up against 
me, my son, for I cannot bear it.” 

Her tears fell fast, coursing over his face, falling on 
his hands. “You are all I have, Theodore,” were the 
last words he heard as he burst away from her unable 
to endure more. He sprang over the ground as if 
running from some pursuer and on reaching the crest 
of the hill, turned into a bypath still at his utmost 
speed. His grandfather’s words, spoken the day he 
left home, came ominously back to his memory. Had 
he left home and love for this ? “ Grandma ! ” he whis- 
pered brokenly, stretching out one hand as if to reach 
that true, tried friend. “ Oh, grandma ! ” 

By and by he thought of Gail, wondered if she had 
already reached home. He had been going on in the 


no 


GAIL WESTON 


wrong direction and swung about. He must see her — 
know what she thought of his coming before he slept. 
He felt relieved when presently he saw her advancing 
toward him in the distance. 

There was a bit of woods between them. He stepped 
under a tree and waited for her, half minded to run 
when she came nearer, fearful of what she might say 
when she beheld him. He could see now that her head 
was bent as if in thought and that a smile hovered 
about her lips. He noticed too, with some surprise, 
that her figure was slight and supple and that she 
stepped freely and gracefully, also that her hat and 
dress — old as he knew, they must be — did not look so 
out of date or shabby as he had expected. 

Perhaps it was the twilight, he told himself. A 
nearer view might dissipate the delusion as the sight 
of him might dissipate his sister’s apparent enjoyment. 
He sighed. 

Gail may have heard the sigh, perhaps something 
else attracted her attention, but she looked up just then 
and Ted detected a wistful, brooding something in her 
eyes that immediately made him homesick. He took a 
step forward; she gave a little cry, but it was of 
absolute delight. “ Oh, Ted ! and I was just thinking of 
you ! ” she exclaimed. 

“Thinking of me? You looked as if your thoughts 
were glad ones.” 

“ They were,” she replied. “ All my thoughts of 
of you are glad.” 

“ But I have left grandpa and come to throw in my 
lot with you and mamma,” he went on, anxious to have 
the worst over. 

“You dear, generous boy! I thought I was not 


A DIVIDED HOUSE 


III 


mistaken in you ! ” she cried, realizing something of the 
fear and anxiety behind his simple words. She forgot 
her shyness, her reserve in his need, and came to his 
side, love and admiration transforming her plain face, 
shining from her fine eyes. 

“ And you do not think I have made a mistake ? ” he 
asked quickly. 

“ I’m not sure that I care whether you have or not,” 
she answered joyfully. “ It’s not easy to tell mistakes 
at sight and unprofitable to try. They’re not unpardon- 
able, anyway,” with a laugh, “ or what would I do ? 
I’ve really come to believe that they’re often only un- 
finished blessings, Ted, just indications of what is in 
us; that God is at work though he hasn’t got through 
with us yet.” 

“ You comforter ! What strange thoughts you have, 
but aren’t they sweet! Do you know that every one 
at the house is sure I’ve made a fool of myself and will 
prove to be a burden and all that nonsense? As if I 
couldn’t learn to work.” 

“ That’s because they are looking at only one side 
of the situation,” soothed his sister. “ They see only 
what you have lost.” 

“ And you see something else ? Is that it ? ” he 
questioned. 

“ I see you and what is meant to be the kindest act 
in the world, however it turns out,” answered the girl. 

“ Spoken like my sister Gail ! ” cried the boy. “ I 
think I’d have been tempted to drown myself had you 
felt as mamma does about my coming.” 

The maiden patted the hand thrust through her arm. 
“You’d never do that,” she said reassuringly. “You 
are too manly, Ted. Men must bear hard things bravely. 


1 12 


GAIL WESTON 


They’re part of the price of manhood. It will be a great 
help to have you here. Tom needs you — we all need 
you. But you mustn’t blame mother — I can see how 
she looks at it. She has been proud and ambitious 
for you ” 

“Haven’t you?” interrupted Ted. 

“Yes. It has been a great joy to me to know you 
had what the rest of us missed — that you would enter 
life prepared to do the best work — the kind that only 
trained minds can do. I have coveted success for you, 
Ted.” 

“ But how can a fellow think of his own success 
when his mother and sister lack bread ? ” broke in the 
lad impetuously. 

“ He can’t if he’s a real ‘ fellow.’ Isn’t that the 
reason you are here?” she answered with a gay little 
laugh. “ I’m not afraid for you, Ted. What you miss 
in one school God will let you make up in some other. 
He has more than one way of educating his children, 
and I want the best for you, Ted, the very best.” 

“You’re all right,” declared Ted, squeezing the arm 
he held. “ My chance at school may come again. I 
shall not be surprised if it does. I don’t want to think 
I’ve got all I shall ever have. But just at present my 
first object is to get work and let the others have a 
chance,” speaking eagerly, as quickly lifted from de- 
spair as he was prone to fall into it. 

“ You mustn’t be discouraged if work does not turn 
up at once,” said Gail at this. “ Sometimes it’s part of 
our education to wait even for needful things. I some- 
times think our greatest need is patience — the never- 
say-die kind, you know. I was praying for you,” her 
voice dropping, “ as well as thinking of you when I 


A DIVIDED HOUSE 


113 

came down the road. I was asking God to make you 
brave and true to duty and then— there you stood 
looking at me. It seemed almost as if God said: 
‘ Here he is. Fve brought him to you. Help me make 
him what you’ve asked/ I want to help him, Ted, 
and so to begin with, I want you to know I love and 
belong to him.” 

Ted’s ready tongue forgot its cunning. He dropped 
his eyes, but it was lest his sister should see the tears 
that had started to them. “ I’ll not forget,” he stam- 
mered. “Allie told me.” 

Gail cast him a quick, glad look. “ Allie told you she 
loved Jesus?” she inquired. 

“ Something that amounted to that. She thought 
you’d accept my coming as a martyr accepts the stake — 
a kind of ‘ all things work together for good,’ you 
know.” 

Gail laughed merrily, Ted’s tone was so lugubrious, 
and he laughed too. It was comforting to learn that 
his sister could laugh. Somehow he had not thought 
it possible in recalling the little drudge of last sum- 
mer. He felt better toward his mother because of this 
talk with his sister, more charitable. No doubt Gail 
was right. His mother had taken him and his loss 
only into account when she so bewailed his advent. 
She would feel differently by and by. Anyway it was 
terribly mean to think hard thoughts of one’s mother. 

When the youth repaired to his chamber that night 
it did not look quite so dreary as it had by daylight. 
This was not owing altogether to lamplight. The old 
patched quilt that had so offended his eyes was gone, 
replaced by a blue and white spread. The rickety table 
had also disappeared, a washstand, with a white bowl 
H 


GAIL WESTON 


1 14 

and pitcher, taking the place it had occupied, a cheap 
looking-glass hanging above it. He felt instinctively 
that his sister was responsible for these changes. He 
had missed both her and Alice awhile during the even- 
ing. On the foot of the bed lay the folded silken cur- 
tain neatly seamed up and hemmed. He thrust it in- 
side his dress-suit case and disrobed hastily. The sheets 
he turned down were fresh if old, and he was between 
them when Tom came up leaving the chamber door 
swinging wide behind him. Through that door came 
Dolly’s angry voice. 

“You’ve taken our spread, Abby Weston, for that 
brother of yours.” 

“ I own the spread,” was the quiet reply. 

“ Don’t care if you do — it has always been on this 
bed. I won’t have Benny Rollins sleep in the room 
.with me, so there ! ” 

“ Then you’ll have to change places with Allie and 
sleep with mother.” 

“ I won’t.” 

“ Then please stop talking and get into bed. You’ll 
wake Benny.” 

“Don’t care if I do. I s’pose that old ragged quilt 
is on this bed? ” 

“ No, it’s over Benny.” 

“ Indeed ! He’s not as good as your brother ! ” 

“ Don’t be foolish, Dolly. Benny’s very comfort- 
able.” 

“And you’ve stolen our< washstand ! Who wants 
that old table ? ” 

“ Shut that door, Tom,” commanded Ted at this 
juncture. “Has Gail robbed Dolly to cover me?” 

“ No. She has robbed herself if anybody. Every- 


A DIVIDED HOUSE 


115 

thing she has brought into this room belongs to her. 
She’s right too,” turning out the light as he got into 
bed. “We want to do our best for company.” 

“ I’m not company,” answered Ted stiffly, “ and I 
won’t be treated as such. I've come to stay.” 

“Not for good?” Tom halted, one foot in the bed, 
one still on the floor. 

“ Have you been asleep all this evening that you 
haven’t found that out yet ? ” 

“ I’ve been studying. You haven’t left your grand- 
father for good?” Tom bent over the bed in his 
eagerness. 

“ That’s just what I have done.” 

“ And— school?” 

“Yes; school and everything. I’ve come to throw in 
my lot with the rest of you — to see if I can help 
mamma out.” 

“ But mother says you have all sorts of fine things 
and will come into a pile of money some of these 
days.” 

Ted laughed and sighed. “ That’s all over now,” he 
said. “ I’ve bidden good-by to it all, and — to grandma.” 
There was tremor in the youth’s voice; he was very 
homesick. “ I’ve quarreled with grandpa over mamma.” 

Tom made a dive for his half-brother’s hand and 
wrung it. “ You’re a brick,” he cried, “ an A number 
one Jim-dandy, that’s what you are! I forgive you for 
being Gail’s brother — you deserve to be, you’re the 
same kind ! ” 

“Thank you,” said Ted comforted, though he was 
far from appreciating the high compliment Tom had 
paid him — the highest in his power. “ You’re a good 
fellow yourself.” 


ii6 


GAIL WESTON 


“Good?” grunted Tom, a lump in his throat, “do 
you s’pose I’d give up my education for anybody or 
anything? It isn’t in me. It takes Gail’s kind to do 
that.” 

Tom buried his head in his pillow and said no more, 
but Ted had won a true friend. 

So the house was divided over Ted’s home-coming. 


IX 


DISCOURAGEMENT IN BEGINNING 
HE end of Ted’s first week at home found him 



1 almost in despair. He had gone to seek work 
with a good degree of hope, his naturally buoyant dis- 
position asserting itself against all odds. But every- 
where he met rebuff — not unkindly rebuff, but rebuff 
nevertheless. No one seemed to need just such a lad 
as he was. The busy season was over, which was 
against him, and his fine clothes and unmistakable 
air of refinement did not encourage his suit with the 
few farmers who were looking for help and needed 
rough-and-ready youths not over-fastidious. He was 
subjected to some questioning which he took with ill 
grace. Whose business was it how he came to be in 
Greenville or why? He asked for work, and not 
inquisition. Yet some of his questioners were not 
without sympathy for the handsome boy. One of them 
— having found that he was the son of Mrs. Rollins — 
showed much interest. “ I wish I could hire you,” he 
said. “ Your mother has had a hard enough row to hoe 
without adding to its length.” 

“ Do you think I am here for my mother to sup- 
port ? ” cried the youth flushing hotly. “ I have come 
to help her feed the others.” 

“ Glad to hear it. Wish you luck,” answered the 
man, “ but I shouldn’t wonder if you had to leave 
Greenville. Not much you could do around here.” 


117 


ii8 


GAIL WESTON 


“ I can do anything,” replied Ted warmly. “ Give 
me the chance and I’ll prove it.” 

“ I have a couple of cords of wood you can saw and 
split and pile if you will,” was the instant reply. But 
it was Ted’s turn to shake his head now. “ If I can’t 
get anything else I may take up with your offer,” he 
said briefly, turning away. 

But his mother’s questionings and remarks were 
what Ted dreaded most of all. Behind them ever lay 
such evident expectation of failure that he resented 
while he feared them. He grew to have a nervous 
shrinking from the sight of her face. 

“ I suppose it’s little use to ask about your success 
to-day, Theodore ? ” she would say. Or, “ Of course 
it’s the old story this evening, Theodore? Perhaps 
you’ll believe your mother the next time she tells you 
you’re not cut out for some things.” 

At the end of that first week came a letter from 
Horace. “ I’ve got your belongings packed up,” it 
ran. “ Have delayed so that everything should be 
fresh from the laundry — sheets, blankets, spread, etc. — 
thinking it might save your mother or sister some work. 
Had hoped for a word from you ere this. How goes 
it, old fellow ? What shall I do with your organ, book- 
case, lounge, etc. ? Of course the books go to you, and 
they’re all boxed and marked to send, but what about 
the rest of the stuff? Shall I send it with the books to 
you, or forward it to your grandfather? Let me hear 
from you. Rob has moved into my room, but doesn’t 
pretend to fill your place. No one can do that. It 
seems as if half of the school had dropped out,” etc. etc. 

His organ and room furniture! Ted had quite for- 
gotten them. They must be forwarded to his grand- 


DISCOURAGEMENT IN BEGINNING 119 

father. But how? He had no money with which to 
pay the expense. He had parted with his last dollar. 
The banknote he had so carefully hidden in his inner 
pocket the morning of his arrival, had been broken to 
pay for a barrel of flour. Less than a dollar of it was 
all he possessed now. The rest of it had leaked away. 
He wrote a card to Horace bidding him hold the goods 
until he heard from him again, and then penned a few 
lines to his grandfather — a few stiff lines — feeling ut- 
terly humiliated as he acknowledged his lack of means 
and asked that gentleman if the organ and furniture 
should be expressed to him at his own expense. 

Mr. Weston smiled grimly as he read this letter. 
His reply was prompt and chilly. 

What you had at school was your own. I want nothing 
to do with it. I am forwarding to you the books and other 
stuff you left here. What shall I do with your pony? 
Forward it too? I await your pleasure, but prefer not to 
have any of your belongings on my premises. 

David Weston. 

The boy’s lips quivered as he read. He did not guess 
how the man had steeled his heart before he was able 
to write the cruel words — how sorely they hurt him 
even as he penned them ! “ I had forgotten about Gay,” 
he said in a troubled tone. 

“ Gay ! Who’s Gay ? ” asked Dolly inquisitively. 

“ My colt.” 

“Your colt! You don’t mean to say you own a 
colt?” 

“A truly colt? Oh, Ted!” cried Benny clinging to 
his brother’s hand. 

“ It is truly enough. The question is what I can do 
with it,” said the youth. 


120 


GAIL WESTON 


“ O bring it right here,” cried Benny. “ We’ll all 
be good to it and pull grass for it. Won’t we, Tom? 
Say, may I ride him, Ted? ” 

“ Her,” corrected Ted, as he passed his letter to 
Gail who had been watching his face as he read. She 
took the epistle with a smile of thanks which changed 
to a look of mingled sorrow and indignation as she 
read. She went to him as she finished and placed a 
hand upon his arm. This did not help to steady the 
tremor of his lips or voice. 

“Tough!” he whispered, trying to laugh. 

“ It’s because he’s so hurt,” she answered in a low 
tone. “ If he unbent he’d have to run after you. What 
can you do about the colt ? ” 

“ If she was here I might sell her. She’s a beauty.” 

“ O bring her here, bring her here,” besought Ben 
and Pet ecstatically. “ Then we’ll have a real, live 
pony,” dancing about the room. 

“ But there’s no place to keep it,” said Dolly. 

“Keep what?” asked Mrs. Rollins, as she just then 
opened the door. “ What are you talking about, 
Dorothea ? ” 

“ Ted’s colt.” 

“Ted’s colt!” Mrs. Rollins dropped into a chair 
in dismay and let both hands drop at her sides. “ What 
next will come, I wonder ? ” she sighed. 

“ Don’t worry, mamma,” said Ted, with difficulty 
restraining his anger. “ If she were here I would sell 
her. But Dolly is right, we have no place for her.” 

“ I should think not, and where would I get hay and 
grain to feed a horse, Theodore? I think I’ve had 
enough added to my burdens of late without shoulder- 
ing a horse,” a falter in her voice. 


DISCOURAGEMENT IN BEGINNING 


121 


“ For pity’s sake don’t cry, mother,” said Dolly im- 
patiently. “ I’m sure there’s no reason. “ If Ted owns 
a horse I don’t see how he can help it. He hasn’t 
brought it here yet for you to feed; when he does you 
can grumble.” 

Ted’s cheeks flamed red, his eyes were full of in- 
dignant tears. Gail’s soft hand stole into his. “ Gay ? ” 
said she. “ Is that what you call your colt ? What a 
pretty name.” 

“Yes. I named it for you, Gail,” answered Ted, 
swallowing the lump in his thoat. 

“ For me ! ” What pride and joy in the sweet voice. 
Ted noticed then-^-what most people noticed the first 
Ihing on hearing Gail speak — the peculiarly clear, 
musical intonation of her voice. It was almost a caress 
at times. 

“ I wonder your grandfather stood that,” said Mrs. 
Rollins, “ though indeed his wife wanted you both and 
he was willing, but I knew if I yielded you both I 
should have no hold on anything he had. They had to 
choose between you and he made the choice. He took 
you because you were the handsomer of the two, I 
suppose.” 

“ Because I was a boy and looked like papa. Grand- 
ma told me so,” corrected Ted. 

“Well it amounts to the same thing. Your father 
was very handsome, which, I suppose, was one reason 
I married him, girls are such fools. Of course I knew 
too, that he was likely to come into money some day. 
Much good his prospects have done me! Well, I’m one 
of the sort doomed to disappointment. Little I thought 
the day I married him, both of us gay and handsome— 
for I was handsome and had more than one suitor — 


1 22 


GAIL WESTON 


that I should be sitting here to-day with hardly a 
penny in the world to bless myself with.” The woman’s 
voice faltered. 

“ And papa expected it as little as you did, mamma,” 
said Ted gently, moved by her tears. “ If he had lived 
things would have been different.” 

“ I’m not so sure of that,” sighed the woman. “ He — 
he didn’t know how to fight the world very well. For 
a man of his education to drop right down in his tracks 
as he did was a burning shame. And now here are 
you! — you’re like him, Theodore, in more ways than 
one. I’ve noticed it as you’ve stood around here day 
after day doing nothing ” 

“ Mother ! ” cried Gail in distress. 

“Shame!” broke in Dolly angrily. But Ted was 
gone — out under the stars where he could breathe — 
walking up and down with rapid steps, hands clasped 
behind him, nostrils dilated. He was fighting the bitter 
waves of anger surging within him against this wo- 
man — his mother. A shudder went through him as 
he recalled his relationship, how fondly he had thought 
of her, how he had sacrificed every hope of life for 
her. He could not, must not hate her. Through the 
the window he caught Dolly’s passionate words: 

“ He’s spent every cent he had on us and now that 
he has nothing left you talk to him like that. He’s a 
gentleman or he’d talk back. I sha’n’t blame him if he 
runs away and goes back to his grandfather. I would.” 

“ Grandpa, grandma! ” Ted wanted to fling himself 
on the ground and cry aloud as he recalled his grand- 
mother’s gentle, loving courtesy — grandma, who could 
not have thought, much less uttered, what that woman 
in yonder had just said. That woman! His mother! 


DISCOURAGEMENT IN BEGINNING I23 

“ O mamma/’ he cried under his breath, “ if I’ve lost 
you, what have I left in all the world?” 

Then he heard his mother’s voice calling him. 
“ Theodore, Theodore ! ” She grew hysterical presently 
and Alice came for him, begging him to come and still 
her for Abby could do nothing with her. He went to 
her and suffered her to put her arms about his neck 
and weep her foolish tears over him, but with a feeling 
within his heart that frightened him — a feeling that 
kept him awake half the night battling it. He must 
not hate his mother. 

The disposition of the colt was not a difficulty for 
many days. Before Ted had time to answer his grand- 
father’s letter another epistle from that gentleman 
arrived saying he had been offered fifty dollars for the 
animal and was ready to send either it or the cash as 
seemed most desirable. Ted hugged himself with de- 
light, and sent his acceptance of the fifty dollars by 
return of mail. He did not know then — nor for many 
years after — that his grandmother was the purchaser 
of his pony. Surmising that the pretty creature would 
only be a burden to her grandson, she had begged to 
be allowed to keep it, the only thing that would be left 
of his boyish treasures. From her sick-bed she di- 
rected Lovisa about the packing of her darling’s be- 
longings, bidding her put in the carpet that had been 
taken from his room the year before, and several other 
things. 

“ I cannot bear to have him miss the necessities of 
life,” she confessed tearfully. “ Life will be hard 
enough to him at first without that. He has never felt 
a want unsatisfied thus far. Now he will miss so much. 
O Lovisa, surely he will miss me ? ” 


124 


GAIL WESTON 


“ That he will,” answered the maid sympathetically, 
“ but never you fear for Theodore, Mis’ Weston. He’ll 
come out all right. A little hardship won’t hurt him. 
It’ll only bring the man in him to the front. P’raps 
he was havin’ too easy a time for his good. Things 
don’t happen. God’s at the bottom of the concerns of 
life as much as he ever was, an’ he’ll not let Theodore 
Weston’s affairs give him the slip. Mark my word, 
that boy’ll be back here yet, as handsome an’ gay as 
ever and wuth twice as much; with a courage an’ 
backbone he’d never ’a’ had without this.” 

“ God grant you may be right, Lovisa. I don’t 
want to grudge him anything that’s for his good, but 
— but it’s hard to live without him.” 

“ You don’t have to live without him,” answered the 
woman, straightening the , bed-cover energetically. 
“ What God has, you have. Ted wouldn’t be at home 
now if this thing hadn’t happened. He’d ’a’ been at 
school. You’d ’a’ had to go without seeing his face an’ 
that’s all that’s asked of you this minit. We’re al- 
lays takin’ bime-by’s trouble to-day, ’stead o’ waitin’ 
till its time comes ’round. His vacation’d be a good 
bit off yet if he was at school an’ you’ve had one look 
at him this year so far that you didn’t expect. You 
may have another. We need to count more on God’s 
s’prises. Can’t you trust the boy as well at Greenville 
as at school? God’s in both places alike, I reckon. 
You jest trust Ted to his heavenly Father,” shaking the 
pillow and adjusting it to the invalid’s head, “ an’ 
when you want to send him a message, let it go by the 
way of the Throne. No delays on that route, no ac- 
cidents that hender what’s sent. My faith’s been a- 
growin’ stronger an’ stronger for that boy ever sence 


DISCOURAGEMENT IN BEGINNING 


125 


he left us. I jest know God’s goin’ to make somethin’ 
out’r him that’ll s’prise us all, an’ we’ll see it too — 
you an’ his granther, an’ me. Then we’ll thank Him 
that he went ahead an’ done the right thing by the boy 
’thout consultin’ us. There’s a man in Ted or he’d 
never have stuck up for his mother as he did.” 

Ted went to meet his sister that night after the 
reception of his grandfather’s letter. Ruth saw him, 
from her mother’s chamber window as he joined Gail 
and thrust the letter eagerly into her hand. The 
watcher could see, even from that distance, that some- 
thing had made the youth glad and her fair face 
reflected the joy whatever its cause. 

“ What are you smiling at, Ruth ? ” queried her 
mother. 

“ Ted has met Gail at the gate and something has 
made him happy,” she answered, her eyes still follow- 
ing the pair. She saw her friend turn ahd place a 
hand on her brother’s arm as her mother said, “ And 
who pray is Ted? and who Gail?” 

“Ted? Why he’s Gail’s — Abby’s — brother, her own 
brother, the one who has just come home.” 

“ And a very foolish boy he was,” commented Mrs. 
Banscombe, “ to give up a good home and an educa- 
tion to come here and burden his poor mother.” 

“ O mamma, you don’t understand,” cried Ruth, her 
face flushing. “ He didn’t come home to be a burden ; 
he came to help. It was so noble, so heroic! and to 
happen right here in Greenville and to some one I had 
met! I wish he was my brother. I’d adore him! 
Gail does, as it is. She thinks there never was a 
brother half so good. His face is as fine as his spirit, 
mamma, and he is a perfect gentleman in manners.” 


126 


GAIL WESTON 


“ Ruth, how you do go on. If Gail, as you call her, 
is Abby Weston, why give her a new name?" 

“ Because he does. He has never known her by any 
other. He has always called her that and has asked 
Alice and Dolly to do so too. He doesn’t like Abby. 
He says it doesn’t fit his sister and he is right, mamma. 
She is such a rare girl she ought to have a rare name.” 

“ You little sentimental goose ! ” laughed Mrs. Bans- 
combe. “ In what is Abby rare ? In the color of her 
hair or her freckles? A plainer girl is seldom seen.” 

“ Or a more beautiful one,” cried Ruth. “ Think 
of her eyes, mamma, and her voice ! Then there is her 
manner, her form, the touch of her hands, the way 
she smiles, and the good, wise things she speaks such 
as nobody else dreams of saying.” 

“ Well, well,” laughed Mrs. Banscombe, “ what a 
list of excellences! I do not deny that she is both 
good and sensible, so don’t get excited. She certainly 
knows how to touch my head when it aches and how 
to make this room look bright on the dreariest day.” 

“And when she sings,” began the daughter, looking 
steadily at the spot on the road where the two she had 
been watching now vanished, “ when she sings ” 

“ I forget everything,” smiled the lady, “ and shut 
my eyes that the sight of her plain face may not dis- 
sipate the vision of angels she conjures up. I find no 
fault with you, Ruth, if it is her voice you call rare.” 

“ But it is more than her voice, it is herself,” answered 
Ruth coming from the window to lay her curly head 
beside her mother’s on the pillow. “ She takes all the 
pride and naughtiness out of my heart by just smoothing 
my palms as they lie in her lap; just by whispering 
some magic word in my ear, as I know she takes the 


DISCOURAGEMENT IN BEGINNING 


I27 


discouragement out of that Ted of hers just by placing 
her hand on his arm and looking into his eyes. She is 
not plain Abby — she is rare and beautiful Gail.” 

“ Have it your own way, child, only remember that 
your mother is not strong like this Gail you adore, 
but is a poor, sick woman who cannot share even her 
pillow with you long without discomfort.” 

“ Forgive me, mamma.” Ruth’s fair brow was 
clouded as she lifted her head. “ Shall I draw the 
curtains? Does the brightness of the sunset trouble 
you? If you want to rest I’ll go away awhile.” 

“ Yes, go like a good child. No, do not draw the 
curtains, the light is mellow though my head is in- 
clined to ache. I wish Gail — I suppose you want me 
to call her so and it is a pretty name — much prettier 
than Abby — could stay with me all the time. She 
would be priceless these nights that I cannot sleep — 
but, then what would the poor nerveless mother of hers 
do? Send Murray to me, Ruth.” 

The young girl drooped her bright head as she softly 
closed the chamber door. “ I wish Gail could live here 
all the time too. I need somebody as much as mamma 
does, only for a different reason. And I have some- 
body — Gail would say so — somebody who understands 
me perfectly and never leaves me — and there’s papa — 
I mustn’t forget papa. I have him when he’s at home.” 

“ Fifty dollars ! ” Ted was saying about this time. 
“Think how much that will buy. You shall have a 
handsome winter cloak, Gail.” 

“ I don’t need one. Spend what it would cost on the 
house.” 

“ I intend to spend every penny of it on the house 
and those in it,” answered the youth, “ and you shall 


128 


GAIL WESTON 


dictate as to how it shall be spent. How fallish it feels 
to-night. I shall be glad when my light overcoat ar- 
rives. There’s a lot of stuff coming, Gail; we can fix 
up the old house and make it comfortable. Let’s hurry 
home and you make out a list of such things as are 
needed and we’ll see how near my fifty will meet them. 
It will be fun to spend it in that way ! ” 

“ Fuel.” Ted read the first item on Gail’s list — 
slipped ini* his hand as the last member of the family 
disappeared over the stairs, leaving the brother and 
sister together. “ What kind ? Coal ? ” 

“ No. Our stove burns wood.” 

“Wouldn’t coal be cheaper?” 

“ It might, but we would have to buy another stove.” 

“How many cords will we need and what will it 
cost all cut and split ready for the stove ? ” 

“ More than we can afford to pay. We must cut and 
split it ourselves.” 

“ I suppose there’s some old fellow about here who’ll 
do it cheap ? ” 

“ Get the wood first, Ted. The rest will come.” 

“ Flour again ? I’ve bought one barrel.” 

“ We’ll need another before the winter’s over and 
you can get it cheaper now.” 

“ Gail, you haven’t put down a single article for 
yourself.” 

“ I’m well supplied or shall be. Mrs. Banscombe has 
given me a cloak among other things. I’m quite handy 
at cutting over and have access to patterns and a sew- 
ing-machine at the squire’s. Have you all you will 
need for the winter, dear ? ” 

“I think so. Of course I’d like another suit of 
clothes, but I’ve got several that are very good and 


DISCOURAGEMENT IN BEGINNING 


I29 


my overcoat was new last winter. Have the boys 
flannels, Gail ? ” 

“Old ones. We shall have to patch. There’s no 
money to spare for them. Mother must have some, 
she’s troubled with a cough in cold weather. We can 
make her old ones over for Ben or Pet.” 

“ Adding up the probable cost of what you have put 
down, there’ll be quite a few dollars left, Gail.” 

“Yes. I know. It isn’t wise to spend all one has 
at the start. There’ll be needs popping up all winter 
and it’ll be nice to be able to meet them. But you must 
promise to hold fast what is left until a real need ap- 
pears, Ted. Remember, mere wants are not to receive 
a moment’s consideration,” gaily. “ I’ve noticed that 
dollars slip through your fingers with ease. You 
haven’t learned yet how to make them stick,” laughing. 

“ How will it do to hand over what is to be saved to 
you, little miser ? I don’t know how to see a lack while 
I’ve power to make it good. I’ll have to make either 
you or mamma my banker.” 

“ But what if you have inherited your facility for 
spending money from mamma?” questioned the girl, 
the seriousness of her words scarcely hidden by the 
lightness of her tone. 

“ I see you are determined to carry the pocketbook,” 
laughed Ted. “ So be it. When the money comes we’ll 
buy what is needed and you shall keep all that is left 
in your own possession.” 

“ Oh, no, not quite all ! You must have some money, 
you poor fellow! You’ve been so used to it you will 
get top-heavy if there is not a little silver in your 
pocket to keep you balanced,” merrily. 

“ Do you know you’re a puzzle to me,” said Ted 
I 


130 


GAIL WESTON 


suddenly. “You plod and plan and sacrifice all the 
time and never count yourself, yet you look cheerful 
and always laugh as if you enjoyed it.” 

“Wasn’t that what laughter was meant for? To 
enjoy? ” 

“ I suppose so, but I know if I were you I couldn’t 
laugh. I’d just want to lie down and die.” 

“What! With a brother Ted who needed you? I 
^wouldn’t have believed you capable of such a trick.” 

The boy laughed. “ Gail, what should I do without 
you at this time ? ” 

“ I am unable to say and you’ll never know since 
you have me,” was the smiling reply. “ I ought to be 
a comfort to you. Why you’ve made my world whole 
miles bigger and suns brighter by coming to us. I 
feel like singing whenever I see your face.” 

Ted caught the girl’s face between his two hands 
and kissed it rapturously. “Wait till the organ comes, 
then you shall sing and I’ll sing with you. I’m glad 
I’ve something you will enjoy, something to fill up my 
lonely hours. I’ll teach Dolly to play. Poor child! 
she’ll have to wait awhile for that piano I’ve promised 
her.” 


X 


BRIGHT AND DARK THREADS 

T HE next week Ted’s goods arrived making a great 
sensation in the shabby little home. Mrs. Rollins 
was away when the stuff came, so it was decided to 
keep her in ignorance of the fact until the dingy little 
parlor could be refurnished. Everything except the 
organ was stowed away in the shed and unfinished 
chamber ; that was placed in a big closet opening from 
the parlor. All the children were pledged to secrecy 
and were alert to keep their mother from approaching 
either of these hiding-places. Never had so many will- 
ing hands and feet been at that person’s disposal, yet 
she suspected nothing as she was unusually busy pre- 
paring a young woman of the village for her first visit 
to New York. 

Such a scrubbing of paint and polishing of windows 
as immediately took place ! The little yellow house had 
never submitted to such a cleansing. As Alice and 
Dolly dabbled in soapsuds, Ted unpacked his goods 
alternately whistling with delight and choking with 
emotion as he came across the many helpful things 
Lovisa had tucked in with his boyish belongings. He 
saw his grandmother’s hand in it all and his heart cried 
out for her as it blessed her. He was particularly 
jubilant over the carpet which, though weak in places, 
was bright and clean, far better than the one that 
graced his mother’s parlor. 

131 


132 


GAIL WESTON 


He helped rip up the breadths for the girls and 
measured the parlor floor. Alice and Gail undertook 
to make it, sewing evenings before their mother got 
home and later after she was in bed. They got up early 
morning after morning working in a corner of the 
boys’ room while Dolly prepared breakfast and Ted 
made himself generally useful, washing and combing 
Benny and even undertaking to curl Pet’s hair one 
day, though with doubtful success. The child’s moist 
appearance attracted even his mother’s somewhat dis- 
tracted attention and brought a rebuke from her lips 
intended for the supposed culprit, but received with 
such a gale of laughter that it fell harmless. 

By Friday night the last stitch had been set in the 
carpet, it could be laid on the morrow and the room 
put in order. As Mrs. Rollins left home on Saturday 
morning she charged the girls not to sit up for her 
that night, she might be detained very late, as the 
dress she was working on must be finished. Dolly 
danced a jig as her mother disappeared declaring that 
everything worked like magic. She danced another 
when Gail came home at noon having obtained a half- 
holiday. 

The little parlor was soon transformed under the 
touch of eager fingers and by the little accessories that 
had made Ted’s sitting-room at school the envy of 
his mates. There were window draperies of fine mus- 
lin; an easy-chair or two; the organ; a bookcase well 
filled; a couch — comfortable, leather-covered with two 
fat pillows ; a center table holding a student’s lamp and 
a photograph holder overflowing with photographs. A 
marble bust decorated the organ and several pretty 
pictures hung upon the walls. Gail had captured a 


BRIGHT AND DARK THREADS 


133 


dark curtain, also among the treasures from Grandma 
Weston, and put it in place of the pretty silk one that 
formed Ted’s closet door. The latter she speedily con- 
verted into a drapery for the mantel-shelf and a throw 
for one of the chairs. 

The busy group had just rested from their work and 
were admiring it, when Ruth — as full of the surprise 
as if she was one of the cottage household — appeared 
with a basket full of hothouse flowers. Her mother 
had sent these, her own contribution being a large, 
quaintly-shaped vase for the mantel and a picture — 
“ Easter Morning ” — for the organ. She and Gail went 
about putting finishing touches here and there, and Ted 
helped Ruth pick over the flowers, feeling happier, as 
he laughed and talked with her, than he had at any 
time since reaching Greenville. Altogether it was a 
gladsome day. 

It was past ten o’clock when Mrs. Rollins reached 
home that night. She found the house in darkness 
though the door was unlocked. 

“ She’ll be too tired to bother with a lamp if we do not 
leave one lighted for her,” Dolly had remarked sagely. 
“ She often goes to bed in the dark and she must to- 
night if we can manage it.” The schemers drew long 
breaths of relief when they heard the weary woman 
groping her way over the stairs to her room. 

The first change Mrs. Rollins noticed was on Sunday 
morning when on opening her eyes she saw the old 
parlor carpet on her chamber floor. “ How’s this, 
Alice?” she asked. “We can’t have the parlor floor 
bare.” 

“ Ted put it down here hissef. I seed him,” cried 
Pet from her little bed. 


134 


GAIL WESTON 


“ Foolish boy ! ” commented Mrs. Rollins, with evi- 
dent pleasure. “ He mustn’t rob the whole house for 
his mother.” 

“ Where did these curtains come from ? ” she asked 
a moment later, her eyes renting on the muslin draperies 
that Lovisa had tucked in somewhere and that Alice 
had carefully mended. 

“ They’re some that came with Ted’s things. That’s 
where the spread and blanket came from too.” 

“ So Theodore’s stuff has come. He mustn’t rob him- 
self for me. I’ve been used to plain things all my life. 
These comforts were meant for him.” 

“ He made Gail put them in this room just the same,” 
said Alice. “ I heard him tell her she must when she 
started to take them to his.” 

“ That’s like Abby,” exclaimed the mother resent- 
fully. “ She’d never think of me.” 

Ted was on the organ stool when Dolly called her 
mother saying he wanted to see her a minute. Tom 
lingered lovingly near the bookcase, Allie stood at one 
window, Dolly near the door. The other children 
trailed in behind their mother, Gail bringing up the 
rear. At a motion from Dolly, Ted struck up a church 
voluntary. Mrs. Rollins started, hurried to the parlor 
door, gave one glance around and dropped into one of 
Ted’s easy-chairs and cried. 

“ Now she’s spoiled it all ! ” wailed Benny as the 
music stopped, and Ted hastened to his mother’s side. 
“ She’s just spoiled it all an’ eberythin’ so pretty.” 

“ It is pretty, it’s too pretty after all I’ve been 
through,” sobbed the woman incoherently. “ Theo- 
dore, you are a good son, you are a comfort. I thank 
you with all my heart.” 


BRIGHT AND DARK THREADS 


135 


“ Thank the girls too, mamma, they’ve done more 
than I have. It was only the stuff that was mine and 
I didn’t earn that. They put in the work.” 

“ You did your share,” cried Dolly. “ I’d never have 
guessed that you could work so well. Mother, he put 
down this carpet — he and Tom — without a bit of help, 
and the one in your room too. He wouldn’t let us 
girls do it.” 

“ An’ he boughted the pretty white sings to put the 
curtains on,” contributed Pet. 

“ An’ — an’ there’s two big rugs on our bedroom 
floor,” added Benny, “ an’ a little white bedstead with 
brass knobs for Ted to sleep in, an’ I’m wiv Tom again, 
an’ — an’ we’ve got a commodore to wash on, an’ Abby 
has her old washstand an’ a piece of carpet like this 
on her floor.” 

“ ‘ Commodore ’ — he means that stand of mine,” cor- 
rected Ted laughing so heartily at this mixed-up speech 
that everybody joined him, and Mrs. Rollins, wiping 
her eyes, looked around. 

“ Now,” she said, “ if you only had something genteel 
to do, Theodore, and if you were sure of enough to eat 
and wear this winter I might be happy.” 

“ Risk it, mamma, and be happy,” cried Ted, his face 
flushing scarlet. “ The work’ll come.” 

“ Having food and raiment let us therewith be con- 
tent,” quoted Gail. “ Who is going to church this 
morning? It’s time to get ready.” 

“ Not I,” said Dolly, “ I haven’t a thing fit to wear 
and I’d rather stay here and play the organ. Ted’s 
going to give me lessons. Aren’t you, Ted? ” 

“ We’ll begin to-morrow. I’ll go to church with 
you, Gail.” 


136 


GAIL WESTON 


“ And I” said Alice, “ if Dolly will see to the 
dinner.” 

“Which she won’t. It’s not her turn,” answered 
Dolly decidedly. 

“ Please,” whispered Ted. “ I’ll buy something to 
make you a dress if you will.” 

“ Go get ready for church, Alice. I will get the 
dinner,” said Mrs. Rollins graciously. 

“ No, you won’t,” cried Dolly. “ I’ll get it. It’s a 
bargain, Ted.” 

Ted’s handsome fall overcoat was the delight of 
Tom’s heart and the envy of Benny’s. “ I wish I had one 
like it,” said the small chap a week or two after Ted 
first put it on. 

“ I don’t believe I’d dare wear anything so swell if 
I had it,” commented his brother, with evident admira- 
tion of the youth who did dare and looked so “ nobby ” 
in it. “ He’s the kind of fellow that’s made to wear 
such clothes,” he admitted to Dolly later. “ How 
would I look in anything so fine? It’d give me right 
away for a flat. Ted’s different from us. So’s Gail.” 

“ Different from you maybe, but not from me,” as- 
serted Dolly. “ I’m as good as either of them and 
look as well, if I am your twin, Tom Rollins.” 

“You had a new suit on last Sunday and you didn’t 
look like him,” said Tom, “ and,” doggedly, “ you didn’t 
look like Gail, either.” 

“ Mercy, who wants to. I’d be very sorry to be as 
homely as she is. As for Ted, he’s city-brought-up, 
that’s what makes the difference. I’m going to the city 
some day, then we’ll see what we see.” 

“Ted wasn’t brought up in the city. Grandpa Wes- 
ton lives on a farm,” contradicted Tom stoutly. 


BRIGHT AND DARK THREADS 1 37 

“ A farm, indeed ! That shows how much you know 
about it, Tom Rollins. It is a country estate with a 
farm attached and a man who runs it, with a handsome 
mansion and an orchard, and plenty of fruit of all 
kinds — and bees too — honey bees! He’s a gentleman 
farmer because he doesn’t need to work and doesn’t 
like to be idle and his wife needs country air. Ted 
never lifted his finger to work unless for the fun of it 
and lived one half of his time in the city. So! Look 
at his bathrobe and his silver-handled brush and comb 
and fishing-rod and then say he was a farmer’s grand- 
son. His grandfather’s place is no more like one of 
the farms around here than heaven is like old Sam 
Wheeler’s shanty. I asked mother and she told me all 
about it. Grandpa Weston is a senator, belongs to the 
State Legislature ! He is an educated gentleman and is 
down on mother because she wheedled his son into 
marrying her. He counts us low-down trash. Ask 
mother, if you don’t believe me.” 

“Perhaps that’s what ails Ted; he has the senator 

blood in him and it tells. You and I haven’t, but ” 

Tom’s teeth came together as he turned away. His 
sister did not hear the finish of the sentence — “ but my 
children shall have it if it’s worth having.” 

The winter’s wood was purchased and lay in a big 
pile beside the little shed behind the cottage. Every 
morning Tom sawed a number of the sticks before 
school-time and either sawed more or split what was al- 
ready cut after school was done. The neat pile that 
Benny was making in the shed grew steadily. The house 
became a veritable beehive. Every evening while Tom 
studied, or read one of the books his new brother had 
brought within his reach, the new brother himself 


138 


GAIL WESTON 


instructed Dolly in the use of the organ, Gail and Alice 
meanwhile sitting near patiently mending or sewing 
up seams, Ben and Pet making themselves useful by 
pulling out threads or removing bastings. Among 
Ted’s stuff Grandma Weston had packed a great bun- 
dle containing partly worn flannel shirts, drawers, etc. 
There were a lot of stockings too, and several dresses 
and skirts, all valuable material from which to make 
this little human brood comfortable. The stock of 
warm winter clothing increased fast if Ted’s prospect 
of work did not. 

This constant source of annoyance to the youth was 
seldom mentioned in his presence. Only two of the 
household ever referred to what cost him so many 
hours of bitter brooding. The general feeling was 
that of gratitude toward the bright-faced, courteous 
lad who often kept the treadle of the hard-running sew- 
ing-machine going to save Allie’s strength while she 
guided the seam, or sat for hours penknife in hand, 
ripping up old clothes, his lips bubbling over with song 
or story. 

But he was getting restless and his sister saw it as 
she also saw the cloud that so often now shadowed his 
naturally sunny brow. Whether his mother’s fault- 
finding was simply a matter of habit or the result of 
purpose, it was surely eating into his heart; robbing 
it of courage; filling it with a sense of shame; as if 
he were in very deed the thief he imagined himself at 
times subsisting on that which was the lawful portion 
of those younger and weaker than himself. Yet the 
work for which he faithfully hunted still eluded him. 
To be sure he had taken the place of a sick lad at a 
village grocery for a week, but what was that? The 


BRIGHT AND DARK THREADS 


139 


work was dirty and not to his taste, and worse still, 
the proprietor of the store was a coarse, vile-mouthed 
fellow whose tobacco juice and oaths ran freely. Ted 
was glad when the boy came back and felt that the 
three dollars he was paid, and handed over to his 
mother, were well-nigh the price of his manhood. He 
had not been used to being sworn at and bullied. 

Mrs. Rollins knew that her son had still a little 
money left in his sister’s hands. He had not thought of 
concealing the fact, neither did he dream that it would 
wound her self-esteem. But she felt much aggrieved 
over the matter. He was her son, she ought to be first 
with him in everything. Used to blaming every mis- 
hap that befell her on her oldest daughter, she blamed 
her now for what she was pleased to term her son’s 
“ breach of trust.” 

She upbraided Gail, but to little purpose. After a 
few words of explanation the girl went on her way 
as if her mother had not spoken. It was very exas- 
perating. The baffled woman poured out all her bitter- 
ness of heart on poor Ted. To be found fault with was 
agony to him. He expostulated, denied any thought 
of showing favor to his sister, over and over again 
asserted his love for his mother. But he did not with- 
draw the money from Gail’s care. What excuse could he 
make for doing so? How could he tell her plainly 
that his mother was making his life miserable over the 
matter? Another plan presented itself. Since she 
seldom reproached him in the presence of others he 
avoided being left with her alone, keeping close to the 
girls or Tom. He very soon perceived that his mother 
understood his tactics and was doubly grieved because 
of them. The glances of reproach she cast at him 


140 * GAIL WESTON 

were unendurable. He went to his sister and begged 
her to return the money, volunteering no explanations. 

They were not needed. Gail had been expecting this 
ever since her mother charged her with having sought 
to turn Theodore’s affections from her. “ I don’t want 
to give it all back to you,” she answered to his solici- 
tation. “ I want to keep part of it very much.” 

“ For yourself, Gail? ” 

“ For a purpose of my own — something I have at 
heart, Ted.” 

“ Then keep what you please. It is yours. I can 
then say that what I have is all I own.” 

“ Thank you. I will keep five dollars as a present.” 

“ Is five enough ? ” 

“ It is all I dare keep. There have been many calls 
of late. You know you gave mamma five two weeks 
ago.” 

“ That leaves how much still on hand ? ” 

“ Ten dollars, if I keep five.” 

“ So little?” 

“ So little. We can’t spend it and yet keep it,” smil- 
ing. “ Since when have you become so anxious about 
the money we own ? ” 

“ Gail, I must find work.” 

“ Yes, dear, I fear you must. You are getting thin 
and pale. You worry. If you’d help Tom a little with 
his studies it would take up your time and give you 
something to think of besides yourself.” 

“ Nothing will bring me any relief except work. 
Gail, I’ll soon be a positive burden. Only ten dollars 
left to me! ” Ted’s head fell to his hands. 

His sister drew his hands toward herself and gently 
smoothed the palms. “ I shall have to give you up,” 


BRIGHT AND DARK THREADS I4I 

she said, “ and that’s what I have been dreading. You 
must have work, as you say; you cannot get it here, 
you will have to go elsewhere.” 

Ted’s hands closed. She tenderly smoothed the 
fingers out and began to smooth the palms again. “ I’ve 
been dreading this hour. I knew it must come,” she 
went on. 

“ But what can I do if I do go away ? ” he broke in 
miserably. “ I am utterly discouraged, Gail. The 
heart, the ambition has gone out of me. I feel less than 
a man, less than a decently smart boy. I think some- 
times I am a fool, a coward, a ne’er-do-well. Mamma 
is right. I take after poor papa. He could not live in 
some atmospheres. The manhood died out of him — 
I feel it dying out of me. My energy oozes away. I 
thought myself quite a fellow once. I am nobody.” 

“ You are my brother — my dear brother,” whispered 
Gail her face close to his, her hands still smoothing his 
palms. 

“Yes, and I meant to be a brother to you all. Be- 
lieve me, Gail; I hoped, I expected to be a help, and 
comfort, and support, to you and mamma when I 
came to you. For what else did I give up my home, 
and education, and prospects ? ” as if defending himself 
from some charge of guilt. “ O Gail, I have failed — 
failed ! ” 

“ No, you have not failed, you have not yet begun. 
You’ve done all you could, made nobly ready to begin 
by stripping yourself for the race. You’ll win yet — 
do all you have hoped to do if only you are brave, 
dear.” 

“ But I’m not brave and what shall I be without you? 
I left grandma, and now — Gail ! ” sharply, “ what are 


142 


GAIL WESTON 


you doing? That’s the way grandma always soothed 
me — by smoothing my palms. Where did you learn that ? 
Ah, I know now whom you have reminded me of so 
often. I’ve been puzzled by a resemblance to some one. 
I see now. Why your eyes are just hers and your hair 
will be when its gray. You have always reminded me 
of her, and I did not know it. Gail, you’ll be beautiful 
when you are old — and I’ve got to give you up just as 
I’ve found out you’re grandma and Gail in one.” 

“ Only for a little while, dear. It will be better for 
you, so we must bear it. I shall miss you. The house 
will not be the same without you, but it is harming you 
to stay here. Courage is worth too much to part with 
it lightly. You need to get far enough away to forget 
the sordid side of our life here and remember only the 
bright part of it.” 

“ But it will cost so much to live wherever I go and 
I shall get such poor pay that more than likely it will 
take it all just to keep myself. If I ever felt sure of duty 
it jvas when I gave up all to come here. And this is 
the result. Since I cannot be a help why should I 
have sacrificed so much ? ” 

“ That’s something you will have to leave to the 
future to answer, dear.” 

“ I suppose it’s another of my mistakes,” bitterly. 

“ Perhaps. But you know mistakes — under foot — lift 
men higher,” comforted Gail. 

Ted pressed the young girl’s hand. “ If mamma was 
only like you, Gail,” he sighed. 

“We must not quarrel with our opportunity to learn 
patience,” answered his sister gently. “ Mamma does 
not mean to be hard with you or with any of us. It 
is her own unhappy nature that betrays her. Yet she 


BRIGHT AND DARK THREADS I43 

improves. She does not often now speak as harshly 
as she once did.” 

The youth looked incredulous. 

“ I mean it,” smiled back his sister to that look. 
“ She cries more easily and frets a good deal, but she 
doesn’t say the biting things so common on her lips a 
few years ago. It is as natural for her to worry, Ted, 
as it is for you to smile. For that reason all her 
children need to be sunshine makers.” 

“ I know one of them who is,” answered Ted. 


XI 


TO THE BREAKING POINT 

I N spite of this talk with his sister about leaving 
home, Ted was very slow in making up his mind 
to go. The first hint of such a course brought all his 
mother’s pride and tenderness for her firstborn to the 
front again. She protested and reasoned. He could 
not make his way among strangers; she would not be 
able to sleep nights for fear he had gone hungry to 
bed, etc. This kind of talk while it sometimes angered 
the lad still held him to her side. It had been her love 
which drew him home ; it could keep him there. Then 
the children openly lamented the thought of his de- 
parture, even Dolly — the only one of them who ever 
uttered an unkind word to him — begging him to wait 
awhile longer before giving up hope of work in Green- 
ville. Some selfishness may have tinctured this petition, 
for Ted was very faithful in his role of music teacher, 
in spite of Dolly’s slowness. 

“ If you had spent half the time on Gail she’d be 
playing as well as yourself by now,” volunteered Tom 
one evening as the two boys prepared for bed. “ She’s 
the musical member of this family. She can read music 
too. Mr. Shields, when he was school-teacher here, 
had a singing class for two winters, and he gave Gail 
lessons free because she had such a good voice.” 

“ Indeed,” commented Ted, entirely failing to take 
in what he heard. Gail as a loving sister he was 
144 


TO THE BREAKING POINT 


145 


beginning to comprehend, but Gail as a singer — it would 
have been as difficult for him to think of her as such as 
it was not to think of her as the household drudge. 

“ I’ve made up my mind to stand by him whatever 
comes/’ had been Dolly’s solemn declaration to Alice 
the day Ted came home. She surely intended to live 
up to it. But Dolly could no more count on herself 
than others could count on her. When things went 
wrong, when the oven would not heat, or the potatoes 
or wood gave out, or any other of the hundred vexa- 
tions that overtake a housekeeper visited her, every- 
body in her vicinity was apt to suffer. When his 
mother worried or vexed him, Ted could count on her 
as a stanch and fearless defender, but when his 
mother petted or praised him, his half-sister often 
turned into a foe. As changeful as his mother’s moods 
was Dolly’s championship. When he was in the good 
graces of one of these parties, he was pretty sure to 
be on the black list of the other. 

Coming in one day after having tramped for hours 
in a vain search for work, he found Gail and Dolly in 
the kitchen. The other children, including Alice, were 
at school. 

“ Go split me a little kindling wood, Ted,” com- 
manded Dolly. “I can’t make the fire burn with this 
green stuff.” 

The youth obeyed and brought in an armful of wood. 
He stood for a moment as if in reflection, then “ There 
isn’t a decent chance for any man in this town,” he ex- 
claimed, as he dumped it. “I might as well say good- 
by to all hope of work. It’s a shame to have given up 
all my splendid prospects for this kind of a life.” He 
gave the wood-box a vicious little kick. 

K 


146 


GAIL WESTON 


“ It’s your own fault,” snapped Dolly. “ Nobody 
asked you to come and eat up the little we had. It wasn’t 
enough to go around as it was. You’d have shown 
better sense to have stayed where you were and flung 
us a penny occasionally out of your plenty to buy shoe- 
strings.” 

“ You needn’t shake your head at me, Abby Weston,” 
she went on maliciously. “ I’ve never posed as a saint 
and have no reputation to keep up. It’s time Ted knew 
what some of us long since learned, that vanity brought 
him here and nothing else. He thought himself a great 
hero, sacrificing himself for us. As it turns out the 
sacrifice is on the other side.” 

“ However it has turned out,” said Gail reprovingly, 
“ Ted’s motive in coming home was noble.” 

“ Not being bright enough to weigh motives, I’ll have 
to take your word for it.” Dolly’s small nose sniffed 
the air. “To me it looks like a clear case of jealousy. 
It wasn’t enough for him to have been borne by the 
same mother as the rest of us, he must get as much out 
of her. Since she fed us, she should feed him — he 
would have his rights.” 

“ Dolly,” cried Ted, his face flaming, “ I’ll never for- 
give you for saying that.” 

“ Oh, yes you will. You’ll thank me for it some day,” 
the girl answered easily. “ When boys have big eyes 
and smooth shiny hair and pretty faces they need to 
hear disagreeable facts occasionally to help them keep 
their balance ” 

Dolly left her sentence unfinished for Ted left the 
room, but Gail kept about her work her face pale, her 
eyes indignant. 

“You needn’t linger. You can follow him if 


TO THE BREAKING POINT 


147 

you wish. I’ve nothing more to say at present,” said 
Dolly. “ My, how this stove smokes,” she added. “ If 
Ted was worth a brass button he’d make this fire burn.” 

“ If you had asked him to build the fire he would 
have done so. He has never refused you help in any 
way. You are cruel; you will drive him away from 
home.” Gail’s voice broke. 

“ Don’t you think it, Saint Abigail. He’s not of the 
kind that ‘ runs away to the dreary wood, wood, wood ! 
to be a robber bold, bold, bold ! ’ ” answered the girl 
mockingly. “ He wouldn’t be so conceited if it wasn’t 
for you and mother. His ‘prospects,’ indeed as if no 
one else in this house ever had prospects. Don’t look 
at me in that fashion, Abby Weston. When you do I 
feel like ” — Dolly doubled up her smutty fists threaten- 
ingly, her eyes full of the tears the smoke had wrung 
from them — “ like drawing a drop of your pious blood. 
There, if that isn’t saintly it relieves my feelings.” 

But after all Dolly was only Dolly. These out- 
bursts of temper were usually followed by real con- 
trition and some little peace offering that absolved the 
peace-breaker in the opinion of the victim. She did 
not mean what she said, she was not constantly cross, 
and never whined. Ted could forgive her. But his 
mother! To have to doubt her affection; to know her 
at best as but weak and vacillating; to listen to her 
constant reproaches and not hate her, not despair of 
himself, this seemed the impossible thing. A score of 
times he felt like running for his life — putting miles 
between her and himself; yet ever her tears, her plead- 
ings held him back. 

“ You begin to look shabby already, Theodore. That 
coat is losing color,” she began in her querulous fashion 


148 


GAIL WESTON 


as be entered her presence one day. “ I don’t know 
what I shall do if you get theadbare. After your father 
grew shabby I couldn’t for the life of me think the 
same of him as I did before. I hate to recall that time, 
and refuse to ever think of him except as the gay and 
handsome young man — perfectly dressed — who used to 
come and call on me before we were married.” 

“ Mamma,” cried Ted, his face tense with repressed 
emotion, “ do you know why I am shabby ? ” 

“ I suppose I do,” sighed Mrs. Rollins, “ and it isn’t 
the reason you think it is, either,” with a touch of 
impatience. “ If you had obeyed me, Theodore, you 
wouldn’t be here now adding to my burden and taking 
the bread out of the other children’s mouths.” 

Ted’s lips came together. He squared his shoulders. 

“ You are your poor father over again,” went on the 
woman. “You were made for prosperity. I married 
him expecting to be a lady the rest of my life, without 
a care or a want. That failed. After he died your grand- 
father wanted you ; I gave you up thinking that my turn 
would come when you had grown to manhood. Now 
that’s over. I shall never hope again. You’ve shut 
me up to this dreary life of penury forever, and just for 
a little silly sentimentality. That’s all it was, Theo- 
dore,” as her son winced. “ I suppose you did not know 
it was that at the time, but you might have known, if 
you had taken a moment’s thought, that a boy with 
your bringing up wasn’t likely to be a help to me nor 
yet to himself.” 

“ Mother,” interrupted Ted in a hard, dry voice, 
“ will you oblige me by telling me why you married 
Mr. Rollins? Was there also the prospect of a life of 
ease there ? ” 


TO THE BREAKING POINT 


149 


“ He hadn’t any rich relations — if that is what you 
mean — nor relations of any kind, in fact — and I 
never thought as much of him as I did of your father, 
Theodore.” 

“While father wore nice clothes, do you mean?” 
interposed Ted with sarcasm. 

“ But,” continued the woman ignoring the inter- 
ruption, “ Rollins owned this little house — it wasn’t 
so shabby then — and he liked me and I thought he 
could work. But,” drearily, “that failed too. He’d 
been to the war and was wounded, but was bound not to 
ask for a pension. He’d given his life freely for his 
country, he said, not expecting to be paid for what he 
might suffer. Stuff and nonsense! He was one of 
your peculiar kind,” contemptuously. “Well, if he 
was willing to suffer for the country I wasn’t, and I 
wasn’t willing the children should suffer; so I went 
to Squire Banscombe myself, after Darius took to ailing, 
and he got a pension for me. It’s small enough and 
goes mostly for taxes and repairs on the house, but 
goodness knows what I’d have done without it these 
years.” The droop of the lips, to which her oldest 
born was beginning to get accustomed, asserted itself 
as Mrs. Rollins finished speaking. The brightness that 
had attracted Ted a few months before had totally 
vanished; a dreary peevishness marred the face once 
called beautiful. She sighed despondently as she fitted 
a patch to the garment in her hand and Ted — after a 
swift glance at her — went out. 

“ I guess the fat’s in the fire now,” thought Dolly 
as she watched him walk toward the belt of woods, for 
she had overheard this conversation. “ I’d go to my 
grandfather’s if I was he — and stay.” 


GAIL WESTON 


150 

Ted did not appear at dinner-time nor yet at supper. 
Gail, who had come home earlier than usual, was 
secretly anxious over this; Mrs. Rollins was openly 
so. 

“ As if I hadn’t enough trouble already,” she whined 
as they sat down to the table without him. 

“ You’ll never have enough while you can make 
more,” snapped Dolly. “ I shouldn’t wonder if he had 
killed himself. He looked desperate enough to do it 
when I saw him making for the woods after that 
precious talk you treated him to this morning.” 

“ Dolly,” shrieked her mother, wringing her hands, 
“ what dc you mean ? Do you want to drive me clean 
crazy ? ” 

“ I mean that Ted Weston’s a fool if he ever gives 
you a chance to dress him down again. I wouldn’t, 
if I was a boy and could earn, beg, or steal my living 
anywhere else. So there! We’ll never see his face 
again.” 

“Yes, we will,” said Gail quietly. “Why do you 
talk so foolishly, Dolly? You are the last person to 
do so.” She drew her mother into the chair from 
which she had arisen and passed her a cup of tea. 
“ Ted will be here presently,” she said. “ He will not 
worry you willingly.” 

After the table was cleared, while Alice washed up 
the dishes, Gail slipped from the back door and took 
the path to the woods. 

“ She’ll never have a minute’s comfort while those 
two are in one house,” muttered Tom, as his eyes fol- 
lowed her in the distance. “ He’s too proud to stand 
mother’s nagging and hinting. Her blues act on him 
like a fit of sickness. I don’t wonder at it, either. He^s 


TO THE BREAKING POINT I5I 

not used to her. I am and yet if it wasn’t for Gail I’d 
be driven to desperation sometimes and she isn’t half 
as hard on me as she is on him. Queer too, and he her 
favorite.” 

As Tom pondered Gail came upon her brother. He 
was not lost. He had been tramping and thinking all 
day. He had reached one conclusion — he would never 
eat of his mother’s bread again — never take another 
bite out of her children’s mouths. He had been to an 
adjoining village trying to persuade some farmer or 
tradesman to hire him. He had come back as he had 
gone and was waiting at the edge of the wood for 
darkness that he might creep unperceived to the house, 
get his belongings and go away forever. 

He said all this to Gail as she sat beside him on a fal- 
len log under the trees, his voice hard and bitter. He 
would never trouble any of them with his presence 
again. 

“ But your presence does not trouble us. It’s your 
absence that has worried us,” his sister answered 
gently. “ Mamma is too worried to ” 

Ted stopped the words on the girl’s lips with an im- 
patient guttural. “ I don’t want any of that, Gail,” he 
cried. “ I can believe that you think something of me, 
but mamma ! Oh, fool, fool that I was ! Grandpa was 
right. I’ve learned for myself what was my father’s 
undoing.” Suddenly the boy’s voice broke, his head 
went down, great sobs shook his breast. 

“ I’m a baby with all the rest,” he said presently, as 
Gail, on her knees beside him, patted and smoothed his 
brown crown. “A fool and a baby! No wonder I 
can’t even earn my own living and have taken the bread 
out of your mouth — yours with the rest of them.” 


152 


GAIL WESTON 


“O Ted, how can you think of such a thing? ” 

“ I didn’t have to think it. She — told me so.” 

“ She ? Mother, do you mean ? She did not say it 
from her heart, Ted. It was part of her fretting. She 
doesn’t mean half that she says.” 

“Yes, she does.” Ted raised his head slowly and 
looked into his sister’s face. “ She twitted me with 
being shabby and said she couldn’t make herself care 
as much for papa ” — the boy’s voice trembled again — 
“ after he grew shabby. She — she married him for the 
ease and wealth she expected as his wife, and she 
married Tom’s father for that house and his pension — 
she said so. O Gail, it’s true, it’s all true, and I don’t 
know how to bear it. It’s hard enough to go without 
schooling — and clothes — and friends; to give up grand- 
ma and — home; but I didn’t mind it much while I 
thought she loved me. But she doesn’t. She never 
loved anybody. She doesn’t know how. She was 
doomed to make herself and others miserable.” The 
boy’s face dropped to his hands once more. 

Gail knew better than to contradict him. She only 
comforted him by tender touches, by the tears that 
dropped on his hands, by her loving face pressed as 
closely to his as she could get it. He opened his arms 
by and by and drew her to them. 

“ I shall always have you,” he said, “ but I shall have 
to go away and leave you.” 

“ Yes, dear. It will be best,” she replied. 

“When they are all in bed, if you’ll leave the door 
unfastened, I’ll go to the house and wait till daylight. 
Then I’ll start.” 

“ So early ? The train for B does not leave until 

eight-thirty.” 


TO THE BREAKING POINT 1 53 

“ I can’t take the train, I shall be obliged to walk. 
I’ve given mamma my last cent.” 

“ Ah, but I am rich. You forget that.” 

“ Rich ? ” incredulously. 

“ I have a five-dollar bill, as you should remember.” 

** And do you think I’ll rob you of that ? I gave it to 
you, Gail.” 

“ To spend as I pleased, I think you said. This is 
the way I please to spend it. Two dollars and a half 

will take you to B , the other two and a half will 

keep you from want until you get your first wages. 
I have it all planned out. The squire has a friend at 
B who needs a clerk. I have his address and a let- 

ter of introduction to the gentleman in my pocket for 
you. You are going to him, dear.” 

“ And you had already spoken to the squire for me ? 
What a sister you are ! Who is this man ? What sort 
of a store does he keep ? How much does he pay ? ” 

“ What a question-box you have become ! Don’t get 
too inquisitive; I’m not overstocked with knowledge on 
the subject, but I’ll stretch it as far as it’ll go. The 
gentleman’s name is Horne. He sells hardware, has a 
wholesale establishment. You are to be general helper 
in the shipping department with a chance of advance- 
ment. The pay at first is four dollars a week.” 

“ Is board reasonable at B ? Shall I have any- 

thing over expenses to send home ? ” 

“ After a while. Your pay will be raised, dear, be- 
cause you will rise,” answered Gail gaily. “ Mean- 
while you will be independent, have enough to live 
comfortably and be learning something.” 

“ Barely a living ! When I think of whart I gave up, 
Gail ” 


154 


GAIL WESTON 


“ You must think also of why you gave it up— for 
love’s sake. Such giving is never lost, Ted.” 

“ Not on you,” admitted the youth gloomily. 

“ Not on any one, however it may seem,” was the 
instant reply. “ I’m going to ask you to come home 
with me, dear.” 

“ I can’t, Gail. Don’t ask it.” 

“ But I must. You do not want your last evening 
with us a source of regret for all the years to come. 
You do not want to leave poor mamma with the heart- 
ache just because she has made yours ache. Let your 
last act set the children the example of forbearance 
and forgiveness.” 

“ If I go with you I cannot act like myself, Gail.” 

“Then act the best you can. You’ve no idea how 
mighty a first right step is in making other steps right. 
I shall not be surprised if you act better than you ever 
did. I’ve been baking to-day for Mrs. Banscombe — 
Martha had a headache — so I have some of my very 
own biscuits and cake for your supper. It’s fit to set 
before a king,” merrily. 

“ And you are fit to sit beside a king,” answered Ted 
tenderly. 


XII 


BEGINNING IN THE CITY 

D URING the months of Ted’s home-staying he 
had received several letters from Horace Frank- 
sin, but had not sent one in return. He acknowledged 
them by postal cards. He did not wish to write a letter 
until he could write something worth while. What 
could he tell that the boys would care to hear? That 
he helped rip up an old skirt yesterday and sawed a 
little wood to-day? Gave Dolly a lesson on the organ 
last night and helped Tom on his Latin this morning? 
He would wait until he had something to say. 

Horace had not spent Thanksgiving Day at Squire 
Banscombe’s much to his disappointment, but scarcely 
to Ted’s, who, dearly as he would have liked to see 
his chum, yet dreaded to have him know of his sur- 
roundings and life. 

“ Uncle Burns has been called suddenly to Germany,” 
wrote Horace, “ and wants to take me with him. I’m 
nothing loth since the trip I anticipated later with you 
is called off. But I’m sorry to lose that visit to Green- 
ville and a sight of you and your sister, as well as the 
squire’s daughter. Uncle says we’ll take it in some 
other time. I have talked with him about my ward — 
Tom Rollins. He does not veto it, since my heart is 
set that way, but advises waiting awhile, at least until 
we return from Europe. I’ll have him then, see if I 
don’t. I’m sending the small chap a couple of books 

155 


GAIL WESTON 


156 

to begin our acquaintance, which please give him with 
a good word for the sender, and please remember me 
to your mother and sisters ” 

Tom’s delight in the two books of adventure was un- 
doubted. His surprise that they should have been sent 
to him, was unbounded. That Ted had cared enough 
about him, so early in their acquaintance, to interest 
another in him moved the boy deeply. It drew him yet 
more strongly toward his brother. He sent a card of 
thanks to Horace, at Ted’s direction, never dreaming 
what greater things this new friend was contemplating 
in his behalf. But Gail knew. Ted told her, at the 
same time cautioning her against raising the boy’s 
hopes until their fulfilment was assured. His sister had 
no fears of their fulfilment. Had she not asked for 
Tom’s chance, and did not God answer prayer? But 
she could be still. She sent a little word of thanks to 
the Giver of all good and held her peace. 

His new work was rather distasteful to Ted. One 
of the clerks laughed when the youth appeared at the 
store that first morning in a high white collar, a stylish 
tie, and the best suit of clothes that he possessed. 
“ Why didn’t you wear a dress suit ? ” he grinned 
while the superintendent of the department told him 
he needed a pair of overalls. 

“ I have them,” answered our hero, producing a 
pair for which he had paid one dollar and a half out of 
Gail’s cherished hoard. Mr. Horne, the evening before, 
had bidden him report to the shipping clerk in the 
morning and be sure to take along a pair of overalls, 
so Ted purchased a pair on his way to the store. Most 
of those shown him had been coarse, ungainly affairs, 


BEGINNING IN THE CITY 


157 


he was sure he could not wear them, and ended by buy- 
ing the best he could obtain. He was wholly unpre- 
pared for the way they were received. 

“We have a dude among us,” joked Sam Dyke, the 
other “ boy.” Then to Ted, “ It’s a pity to spoil them. 
They’re only fit for Sunday-school.” 

Perhaps I am the best judge of what I shall wear,” 
answered Ted savagely, holding his head very high. 
From that moment, Dyke — who was not really a bad 
fellow — took delight in hectoring “ the gentleman ” as 
he dubbed the new helper. 

The work was dirty and laborious. Unloading and 
packing great boxes was new to our friend. Sam 
found it child’s play, and boasted that he did, but when 
it came to taking the memoranda of the contents of 
these cases and casting up the accounts, Ted was at 
home and very much his companion’s superior. 

“ The gentleman has a headpiece of his own,” ac- 
knowledged Sam. “ I shouldn’t wonder if he came to 
wear fine clothes all the time one of these days.” 

“ I shouldn’t wonder either,” assented French On- 
glas, son of the junior partner of the firm, who had been 
“sizing up” the new boy. This young man had taken 
a fancy to the stranger and showed it by an occasional 
kind word, by overtaking him on the street and walking 
with him toward his lodgings. 

Ted felt flattered by these attentions. He noticed 
that Mr. Onglas never treated Dyke as an equal. 

“You’re not exactly the kind we usually have below 
stairs,” said this gentleman to the youth one day. 
“You’re down on your luck. Don’t let it fret you. 
We’ll have an opening further up before long and I’ll 
say a good word for you.” 


158 


GAIL WESTON 


“Oh, thank you!” cried Ted, ready to be friendly, 
hungry for companionship. 

French Onglas was not a safe companion had the 
youth but known it. Not that French was considered 
bad, or even “ fast ” by most people ; he had no out- 
breaking sins; yet he was fatally familiar with that 
which wise men shun, and dabbled in much that ruins 
character. His character was ruined as a matter of 
fact though it was not yet apparent. The little rever- 
ence he had once possessed for things pure and holy 
had been lost; at thirty he was cold, cynical, critical, 
sly — in other words, thoroughly bad. He was never 
drunk though he drank often and much; he rarely 
lost money in gaming, though he played for stakes 
and was always an absorbed watcher of other men’s 
gambling; he tasted of every cup that bad men quaff, 
but was intoxicated by none, yielded wholly to none. 
Unemotional, colorless, he lacked the richness of blood 
that might have made him capable of excess, a lack that 
rendered him a dangerous friend to warm, generous, 
gifted youth, which mistook his coldness for strength of 
will, and in attempting to copy it fell a victim to vices 
to which his callousness made him impervious. He 
amused himself with watching these gullible folks, 
inwardly scoffing the weakness that could so little 
withstand what never overcame him. He boasted, in a 
quiet way, of his strength. In short, French Onglas 
was that fortunately rare thing, a man with a taste for 
every form of evil and no overwhelming appetite for 
any particular kind of evil, unless an insatiable passion 
for sensation, a curiosity of lust, can be called such, 
which kept him ever meddling with other men’s vices 
while he succumbed to none. 


BEGINNING IN THE CITY I 59 

“ He’s a half-breed, as much devil as man,” one who 
had suffered from his acquaintance once said of him. 

The admiration of a bright young fellow like Ted 
Weston gratified this man. He liked to be followed, 
copied. He liked still better to prove to his followers 
how impossible it was to copy him. Slowly, cautiously, 
he led Ted from one resort to another. He might have 
been surprised had any one charged him with trying to 
compass the boy’s ruin; he was simply following his 
bent ; finding out — as he once said to the youth — “ what 
kind of material he had in him.” 

He obtained, as he had promised, the better position 
for the new helper and celebrated it by treating Ted to 
his first glass of wine. “ A very small glass of very 
weak wine,” he assured the youth when he drew back 
from it, “ a baby might drink a quart of it without 
harm. It only had the name of wine to make boys 
think they were men.” He did not say this jocosely — 
such men have little humor — but in a tone half-banter- 
ing, wholly sarcastic, that nettled Ted to lift the glass 
without further demur. 

The act was not applauded — hearty applause is not a 
distinction of gentlemen of this type — but Ted was con- 
gratulated on his “ nerve,” and when no giddiness fol- 
lowed, Mr. Onglas intimated that he had at last found 
a youth of his own kind. What distinction could equal 
this? 

All this did not happen in a week or a month. It 
was fully four months before Ted’s first promotion 
came, and with it his first glass of wine. Meanwhile 
his sister was praying for him and wondering why he 
did not write. 

There were various reasons. He had left home with 


i6o 


GAIL WESTON 


a heart steeled against his mother and had determined 
he would not write to her until he could send her 
money, or see her again until she had changed her 
opinion of him. Her letters maddened him, filled as 
they were with hysterical protestations of her affec- 
tion and reproaches for his silence and mistakes. He 
scarcely read one before he threw it into the fire. 

As to Gail, in those early days of his coming to B 

his heart warmed at every remembrance of her. He 
saved fifty cents during the first month, toward paying 
her back the five dollars she had loaned him; he wrote 
her one letter in that time. In answering it she had 
begged him if he had only time to write to one person 
to make his mother that one. He thought he under- 
stood this entreaty. Probably his mother had scolded 
her because his letter had been addressed to her. After 
a fortnight of silence he sent a card to his sister saying 
he would write to his mother when he had something to 
send her ; that he was hoping for an increase of pay. 

Gail’s letters came regularly if they were not an- 
swered and were his only comfort during the first 
month of his sojourn in a strange city; the second 
month recorded an invitation from Dyke to attend the 
theater with him, which was refused, and later, a “ bid ” 
to a dance which Ted accepted. The company was not 
of the sort he liked, he felt a sense of shame as he 
danced with the gaudily dressed girls evidently from 
the lower strata of social life. He had never danced 
before except at school affairs, among his equals. His 
grandmother — who had old-fashioned notions about 
dancing — did not know he danced at all. This was an 
accomplishment he had picked up away from home. 
Of course his handsome face and gentlemanly manners 


BEGINNING IN THE CITY l6l 

made a favorable impression. Dyke never tired of 
joking him on his female “finds.” The youth flushed 
and inwardly resented these jokes, yet he did not refuse 
to attend another dance, and yet another. It was about 
this time that Mr. Onglas began to take notice of Ted 
and then he was less with Dyke whom he had al- 
ways looked upon as his inferior. 

Knowing nothing whatever of her brother’s surround- 
ings, Gail had yet an uneasy sense that all was not right 
with him, and wondered, after his promotion, that he 
did not forward a little money to his mother. That 
lady’s constant references to his remissness in this re- 
spect together with Dolly’s sarcastic remarks, became 
torture to the girl, the more unendurable because she 
felt them in some measure justified by Ted’s silence and 
neglect. She wished she could see him, talk to him. 
Her letters, tender and helpful as she had tried to make 
them, failed to have the desired effect. 

The long, dreary winter was filled with misgivings, 
but the first fair buds of spring seemed fraught for her 
with messages of peace. She came home one day, her 
hands full of arbutus found close to the spot where she 
had held her last talk with her brother, and as she 
arranged them in the vase — Ruth’s gift on the day that 
ushered in her mother’s surprise — her heart took on 
hope. She recalled Ted as he had looked that after- 
noon, a smile on his lips, admiration for his helper 
in his eyes, that pretty deference of manner, always his 
when in presence of women, conspicuous in all he said 
and did. Was he not the same to-day, though her fond 
eyes could not behold him? Surely God would keep 
him in the midst of the temptations and snares that 
might surround him. 

L 


GAIL WESTON 


l62 

When the summer’s sun climbed high and the days be- 
came heavy-hued and sultry, she began to look forward 
to his coming home. “ He will have a vacation, however 
short,” she thought and sang about her work. But the 
summer passed and no Ted made his appearance. He 
had not taken a vacation. 

“ I’m in no hurry,” he said every time the subject 
was broached at the store. “ Let the fellows that want 
a vacation take it. There’s time enough for me.” 

He did not want to go home and where else could 
he go? Horace was still abroad, Rob had not written 
to him for months. And no wonder. He had not an- 
swered one of the several letters he had received from 
this friend. Then his funds were low — they were al- 
ways low — and he had a debt that troubled him. So 
he evaded Gail’s questions about his vacation and filled 
his short and occasional letters to her with business 
items and references to the extra work just now; when 
so many of the men were off. 

So September found him, as also a letter from Horace 
who was on the eve of returning to the United States. 
He wrote: 

I write ahead because I want Tom as soon as I land. 
I have lost so much time from my books uncle won’t let 
me go for him myself, he’s bound I shall begin at once 
with a tutor. It will be necessary if I am to enter college 
with Rob next fall. I’m writing Mr. Center — our lawyer — 
by this same mail to send you a check and I count on you 
to see that Tom reaches me as soon as possible. I wonder 
that you never write. I’ve looked my eyes out for a letter. 
It is inexcusable. I have had to depend for news on Rob, 
the faithful. 

Don’t bother to make Tom fine, only comfortable. I 
want to put on the finishing touches myself. You know 
I’ve never had any one to dress up. I’m planning a check 
that will more than cover expenses. Use what’s left where 


BEGINNING IN THE CITY 


163 

it’s needed. You’ll know where. I wish you’d give me a 
glimpse of your face. Are you too busy to be spared? 
That’s one thing about work that must be enjoyable — a 
fellow is missed if he drops out for ever so little a while. 
He counts. I never counted anywhere. But I mean to — 
some day. Say, I’ve got to see you soon if I have to stop 
plugging and make a regular business of hunting you up. 
Remember me to your mother and sisters. I hope they’ll 
dare trust my boy to me. I’ll do my best for him, 
that I will. Horace. 

Ted examined the check in the accompanying letter 
with eagerness. He blushed with shame over the use 
he made of part of the money it represented. “ Hod 
says I am to use it where it is needed/’ he argued to 
himself, as if to vindicate his conduct to his con- 
science, “ and if it isn’t needed here it’s needed no- 
where. I haven’t had a moment’s peace for six weeks 
because of that bill. I’ll never run another of the 
same sort. I guess I’d better go for Tom myself. It 
will please Gail and I want to get out of this for an 
hour or two — long enough to take a deep breath. 
There’ll be an X to spare and that’ll pacify mamma.” 


XIII 

tom's chance 

D OLLY stood first on one foot and then on the 
other to give “ each some chance to rest,” she said, 
while Gail, on the floor beside her, patiently pinned up 
the hem of the skirt she was hanging for her sister. 

“ There, I think that is even. Swing around once 
more, Dolly. Slowly — very slowly,” said Gail. “Ah. 
there's one spot which needs to be a trifle shortened. 
Now turn around once more, please.” 

The door opened behind her, but Gail did not turn 
her head. Dolly, whose revolutions had brought her 
directly in front of it just then, gave an exclamation of 
surprise. “ Ted Weston, did you drop from the skies? ” 
she cried. 

“ At last ! ” His sister had both of his hands in her 
own almost before the young man could drop his grip. 
“ It seems too good to be true,” she declared, kissing 
him. 

Ted laughed because he wanted to cry; his welcome 
overcame him. “ I’ve come for Tom,” he said. 

“O — oh!” Gail’s eyes shone like stars. “We al- 
ways get what we ask for if we wait long enough,” 
she sighed. 

“ For Tom ! ” echoed Dolly. “ You’re mistaken, sir,” 
coming over to get her kiss. “ It’s me you want to take 
back to the city with you.” 

“ You are only a little girl, Dolly.” 

164 


tom’s chance 


165 

“ I’m as old as Tom.” 

“ Yes, but you’re a girl and a pretty one.” Ted was 
mentally contrasting his sister with Katie Polluck, one 
of his dance acquaintances who had shown him de- 
cided favor to Sam Dyke’s evident disapprobation, for 
Sam liked Katie. “ I haven’t met as pretty a girl as 
you in B , Dolly,” he protested. 

“ Truly?” 

“Truly; and pretty girls need to live at home where 

they can be cared for ” Ted glanced toward his 

sister Gail and halted in his speech. It was not the 
love glance he met that so suddenly closed his lips, 
but something quite otherwise — the unexpected dis- 
covery of a charm in the face confronting his, quite 
lacking in Dolly’s — lacking in that of any other girl of 
his acquaintance. For the first time he noted the 
smoothness and whiteness of her forehead, and how 
daintily the little rings of hair clung about it. He 
had never doubted the beauty of her eyes, but the 
mouth he had not considered before — the firm, shapely 
lips, the regular white teeth, the smile that lighted the 
whole countenance. 

Yet it was more than these little personal features 
that held his attention now; something emphasized 
them, gave them value; something new and undefin- 
able, something superior. What had come to her ? He 
would have poohed had he been told that long waiting 
on God for her wayward brother had helped to bring 
to the surface the inner beauty of his sister’s soul. 
How could he understand what Gail herself did not 
guess ? “ Where’s mamma ? ” he asked, his eyes still 

lingering on the quiet face. 

“ In the parlor asleep,” was the unexpected reply. 


i66 


GAIL WESTON 


“ She’s not sick ? ” his voice was solicitous. 

“ How much would you care if she was ? ” cried 
Dolly with sarcasm. “ I’m ashamed of you, Ted 
Weston.” 

“ I’m ashamed of myself,” admitted the youth 
soberly, as Gail explained, “ Mother came home with a 
headache and as she refused to go to bed, I tucked her 
up on your couch. I think she will feel better when 
she wakes.” 

“ May I go in and peep at her. I’ll promise not to 
disturb her.” 

Gail smiled in acquiescence, but Dolly shrugged her 
shoulders. “ You’re a queer kind,” she said. “ Your 
love only burns when there’s sight to feed it.” And 
Ted, flushed but mute, passed quietly into the room 
beyond closing the door after him. 

He was gone so long that Gail had some difficulty in 
restraining Dolly from following him. “ He may have 
found mother awake; they will have much to say to 
each other,” she said. “ Suppose we get supper ready. 
We shall want it out of the way early so that we can 
enjoy a long evening with Ted.” 

Gail had just finished molding the biscuits and was 
washing her hands while Dolly placed them in the oven 
when Tom thrust his head through the door. 

“ Extravagance ! ” he stopped his whistling to de- 
clare, “ Where is that economy you were dishing up 
with our breakfast this morning, Doll? They’ll take 
butter — plenty of it. They’re no good without a lot.” 

“ Ted’s come,” smiled Gail over her shoulder. 

“ And we wanted to be good to you seeing we are to 
lose you right away,” added Dolly. 

“ Ted ! When did he get here ? ” This to Gail. 


TOMS CHANCE 167 

“ Lose me ! Who says so ? ” addressing his twin 
sister. 

“ Ted. He says he has come for you. So, sir, you’re 
to work for your living like other folks.” 

“ I won’t,” answered Tom flatly, “ not if it interferes 
with my schooling. If there’s a chance to go to night- 
school, I won’t mind, but I’m not going to give up 
school for anybody.” 

“Who asks you to, Tom?” queried a merry voice, 
and turning, Tom discovered his brother standing in the 
doorway. The young man’s eyes looked suspicious, 
and those of his mother — who stood beside him — were 
beyond dispute red from weeping. She was clinging 
to her son’s arm. 

“ Doll says you’ve found an opening for me and I’m 
to go back with you to work.” 

“ Dolly’s dreaming. I never told her such stuff. I’ve 
come to pilot you to Franksin — you remember my 
chum — the fellow who sent you those books? Well, 
he wants you and you are to tutor with him for a year 
and then go to some fitting school and prepare for 
college where you can cram to your heart’s content.” 

“ You’re — you’re fooling,” Tom gasped. 

“Fooling! Ask mamma. She has just consented to 
let you go. I’ve Franksin’s letter in my pocket, if 
you want to see it, and the money he sent to rig you 
out.” 

“O Ted!” Tom’s voice broke, his face paled. He 
started toward his brother, but there was a blur before 
his eyes, he could not see. He flung himself into a 
chair and buried his face in his hands. Gail was at his 
side in an instant, her soft little palm stroking his 
stubbly hair. “Didn’t we ask?” she whispered, as 


GAIL WESTON 


1 68 

she stooped over him and the boy lifted one arm and 
placed it about her neck. 

“ If Mr. Franksin knew what a sissy I am he’d give 
me a wide berth,” he managed to ejaculate through his 
tears. “ It’s too good to be true.” 

“ Sissy or no sissy he’s been after you ever since I 
told him how you loved books more than a year ago,” 
declared Ted. “ He has brought his uncle around to 
his way of thinking and is planning all sorts of good 
things for you. He has no end of money. You’re made 
for life, young man.” 

“ I — I hope I won’t disappoint him,” answered Tom 
dubiously. “ I wish I was smarter, but I’m no great 
shakes either for looks or anything else.” 

“ Come off,” laughed his brother. “ What do you 
suppose Horace cares about your looks. If you were 
a girl that might count. It’s you he’s after. If you 
have sense enough to take to him and behave half 
decent he’ll be satisfied. He’s spoiling for somebody 
to make a fool of, that’s all.” 

“ It’s just my luck to be a girl,” moaned Dolly. “ I 
say it isn’t fair. I’m Tom’s twin and somebody ought 
to consider me. I’m every bit as good as he is.” 

“ Doubtless, but hardly as good at books,” teased 
Ted. 

“ No, thank goodness, I’m not forever with my head 
in a book.” 

“And, therefore, in no danger of being adopted by 
some one anxious to develop possible genius,” joked 
her brother. “ It’s his ‘ forever with his head in a 
book ’ .which has won Tom his opportunity. Your lack 
in that direction and your sex bar you out. Horace 
could hardly be expected to adopt a girl.” 


tom’s chance 


169 

“ I’d like you to know that it’s not my fault I’m a 
girl, Ted Weston,” cried Dolly. ‘‘If I had been con- 
sulted Tom would be wearing gowns, not me, and you 
needn’t think I’m going to stick to this house and this 
village all my life just because I wasn’t consulted, for 
I won’t. I’m going to the city if I have to run away. 
So there ! ” 

“ I’d wait until I was out of short clothes,” coun- 
seled the young man humorously. “ When I get a 
city home I’ll invite you to come and be my house- 
keeper.” 

“ When you do,” sneered the girl. “ I have no hope 
that will ever be. I’ll make my own way without any- 
body’s help. All I ask is a chance.” 

Supper was ended and Ted sat talking to his mother, 
Pet on his knee, when Alice and Ruth Banscombe 
came in. 

“ I’ve had the loveliest time ” Alice began and 

stopped at sight of the new arrival. “ When did you 
get here, Ted?” she ended. 

“ A couple of hours ago. Pray, be seated, “ bringing 
forward two chairs. “ I am glad to see you, Miss 
Banscombe. How well you look, Allie.” 

“ I’ve been riding in the wind. Did Gail tell you 
that I had entered the high school at Vainfork? No? 
Well, I have and as Ruth is kind enough to bring me 
home each day I fall into temptation, there are such 
beautiful rides along the way. Gail thought I could be 
spared this afternoon and we’ve been in the woods. 
It’s just glorious ! ” 

When the two girls in the kitchen had finished the 
supper dishes and come into the sitting-room, it was 
filled with the cheerful murmur of young voices. Tom’s 


IJO 


GAIL WESTON 


was the most in evidence. He was telling the girls of 
his great good fortune, sending occasional little grate- 
ful glances in his brother’s direction as he went on. 
“ Ted’s at the bottom of it,” he ended. “ It’s not every 
fellow has such a brother.” 

Always radiant under praise, Ted appeared now at 
his best. Gail’s heart grew light as she watched him. 
She must have been mistaken in thinking him changed 
and not for the better. There had been conscious fear 
shadowing her joy in his coming. Was he coarser? 
Did an intangible something proclaim loss in his life? 

She hoped he would invite her to accompany him 
when he walked home with Ruth later. But he did not. 
Perhaps Ruth would say just the right word to him. 
Ruth was so wise and he was so evidently charmed 
by her fresh beauty and grace. She watched them up 
the road a prayer in her heart, and when they were out 
of sight comforted herself by a talk with Tom — Tom 
who was still almost beside himself with joy and 
anxious to share it with every one. 

“ Yes,” he said gravely, as his sister spoke of this 
manifest answer to prayer. “ Yes. Do you know I 
felt it was not the truth the moment I said, ‘ Ted’s at 
the bottom of it.’ God’s at the bottom of it, Gail, and 
you and I know it, though I love Ted for his part in it 
and it was a big part too. It is answered prayer, but 
it wasn’t my faith that brought it. I hadn’t enough to 
count.” 

“You had enough to "agree,”’ smiled his sister, 
“ and it is agreeing, not faith, to which our promise 
was addressed. Tom, I want you to agree with me in 
something else.” 

“ In anything you say, Gail.” 


tom's chance 


171 

“ You are entering on a new kind of life, will meet 
a different class of people from those you have known, 
will be subjected to temptations you have not realized 
before. Agree with me to be God’s boy whatever 
comes, dear.” 

“ But what if I should ‘ agree ’ and then fail ? ” 

“ You won’t if you really agree, Tom.” 

“ It means a lot to ‘ agree ’ on that, Gail.” 

“ Yes. It means letting God help you row against 
the tide rather than letting yourself drift with it.” 

“ I’d like to have him help me if I was sure he 
wouldn’t expect too much of me. You see I’m not 
much to count on.” 

“ Which is one reason you should have some one 
better than yourself to count on, Tom. God’s own can 
always count on his presence, wherever placed, and his 
help, whatever the difficulty.” 

“ Can’t anybody do that, even when he’s not sure 
he’s his own, Gail? ” 

“ I think so, dear, but the consciousness of disobe- 
dience — for when we refuse to be his own we disobey 
him, Tom — is apt to blind our eyes to the fact, or make 
us afraid or ashamed to act on it.” 

The boy was silent for a while. Then, “ I’ll ‘ agree,’ ” 
he said slowly, “ but, Gail, you must pray hard.” 

“ And you too, dear — always — however it may seem. 
Anytime you stretch out your hand it will touch 
his. He’s as near as that. Act as if ou believed it 
and you will find it true.” 

“ I’ll try.” 

“ God’s boys never even taste of strong drink, Tom.” 

“ What do you take me for ? I’d like to see the 
fellow that’d offer it to me. I’d paste him one.” 


172 


GAIL WESTON 


“ Good ! ” applauded Gail, “ and see you ‘ paste ’ him 
well. But there are other evils you must shun — 
there’s gambling. Never play cards at all and never 
play anything where there are the smallest stakes.” 

“ I’m no sport. I’m going in for an education, I’ll 
not be after that kind of thing.” 

“ But that kind of thing will be after you, I fear, 
sooner or later. Most boys have to meet these tempta- 
tions and either overcome them or be overcome by 
them. I’ve heard that certain sorts of gambling are 
tolerated in polite society. It is called ‘ diversion.’ ” 

“ I’ll keep out of it, -I promise you.” 

“ There’s one more thing,” whispered the girl, “ and 
that’s impurity. O Tom,” the voice faltered, “ I can’t 
bear to think of you as anything but the clean, sweet 
boy you are now. Promise me that when evil sugges- 
tions come — from without or within — you’ll not try 
to fight them yourself — you’re not able to do that suc- 
cessfully — but will just turn them over to the Lord 
Jesus Christ and run. Perhaps you’d better run first 
and tell Jesus as you run. Go! Work at something 
with all your might, or take a brisk walk. Action is 
what you need and air — daylight, sunlight, God’s good 
world and the thought of his greater love. Never 
yield to an impure thought. Rout it.” 

She had her two loving arms about the boy and he 
kissed her as he said humbly, “ You ask God to help me 
remember it all, Gail, and I’ll try to keep myself so 
clean that you can look into all the corners when I 
come back.” 


XIV 


I NEED HIM TO BE REAL 

G AIL did not get the coveted long talk with Ted 
during his week at home. He guarded carefully 
against such an accident. He had detected more than 
one troubled glance turned on him when he was talk- 
ing to others that assured him of her misgivings. He 
knew that left alone with her, he would be powerless 
to preserve the secrets of the past months. It 
would worry her to know them and rob him of her 
confidence in the future. He intended to turn over a 
new leaf at once — drop many doubtful things and 
many things of whose evil he had no doubt. What 
was the use of having a fuss? 

He hoped she would not guess that he was try- 
ing to avoid her, but she did and was sorely grieved 
thereby, as well as confirmed in her fears. 

Two days more and the boys would be gone. To- 
morrow they were to go to the city to purchase what 
was lacking in Tom’s outfit. Gail pondered this as she 
washed up the supper dishes her brother standing by 
bantering with Dolly. She must go with them to-mor- 
row, this she decided. She would be needed to check 
Ted’s tendency to extravagance, and she might find 
some tiny opening to say some word to him while Tom 
was being fitted. Anyway it was her last chance. She 
broached the subject half-timidly as there was a lull 
in the merry nonsense going on by the window. 

173 


174 


GAIL WESTON 


“What do you get for Tom besides his suit, Ted?” 
she began. 

“ Everything. It’s not worth while taking a thing 
he owns now. We must begin at the skin and work 
out, ending up with a fall overcoat, hat, and gloves.” 

“When do we start?” 

“ Early. By nine at the latest. I’ve promised to 
take mamma,” conscious of his sister’s “ we.” 

“And me too. You’re not planning to leave me out, 
are you? You’ll need me if the money is to spin out.” 

“ The money’s all right. There’s enough of it.” 

“ But you’ll want to stretch it to its limits of possi- 
bility since it’s a fund in trust,” answered Gail. 

“ Horace left everything to my discretion, sis.” 

“ Then you will want to be discreet.” 

Ted’s cheeks flamed as he thought of the first use to 
which he had put some of the money. “ And you think 
I’m not likely to be ? ” he questioned. 

“ No, I think you’ll need me,” she laughed. 

Her brother did not laugh. “ Really, Gail,” he said, 
manifesting a touch of ill humor, “ would you wish 
me to tell mamma she must remain at home that you 
may go? Mr. Cumber’s buggy will barely crowd in 
three.” 

“ But his grocery wagon will take four comfortably. 
I’m glad mother feels equal to going, but I’m a neces- 
sity. A drag-chain sort of a necessity, you know ; only 
of use when there’s danger of going too fast. I promise 
not to bother you much.” 

“ That old grocery wagon is such a disreputable 
looking affair! The back seat lops over on one side,” 
objected Ted. 

“ I’ll sit on that side and Tom’ll sit with me,” 


I NEED HIM TO BE REAL 1 75 

replied his sister cheerfully. “You and mother can 
occupy the front seat.” 

“ I don’t see how that will improve appearances, 
Gail.” 

“ It won’t, but it will give you a chance to forget 
them. You can keep your eyes ahead and refuse to 
consider what may appear behind you,” retorted the 
girl merrily, holding tenaciously to her purpose. 

“Isn’t mamma capable of picking out clothing?” 
asked the youth testily, shifting his ground. 

“ The beautiful is sure to run away with her judg- 
ment,” laughed Gail. “ Appearances count with her 
too, Ted.” 

“Well I think I can be trusted to know a piece of 
good cloth,” answered her brother with spirit. 

“ Or silk, either ? Undoubtedly. The choice of your 
closet curtain proclaimed that,” mischievously. “ But^ 
Tom needs clothes substantial as well as clothes sightly 
and I must have a hand in selecting them.” 

“ Why don’t you say at once that you want to go be- 
cause you want to go ? ” broke in Dolly, who seemed as 
much amused as surprised at this revelation of the un- 
expected in her half-sister. “ What has got into you, 
Abby Weston? I shouldn’t care to go where I wasn’t 
wanted.” 

“ But I am wanted,” was the instant response. “ It’s 
the old wagon Ted objects to, not his sister.” 

What could the young man say to that? He felt 
abashed before the assured look that accompanied the 
words. Let her come. There’d be precious little 
danger of her getting a chance to preach at him with 
his mother and Tom along. He was right, yet she did 
get the opportunity to whisper a few words while Tom 


176 


GAIL WESTON 


was in the dressing-room trying on a suit of clothes, 
and Mrs. Rollins .wandered about the store examining 
and admiring. 

“You made mother very happy, Ted, by bringing 
her that ten dollars,” were her first words warm with 
approbation. 

“ I see I did,” answered the youth, crimsoning under 
his sister's guileless eyes. 

“ She is not so strong as she was a year ago and 
tires more easily,” continued the girl. “ A few lines 
from you regularly — if only once a month — will cheer 
her up, give her something to look forward to, and — 
if ” — hesitatingly, “ you can send her a little money 
at times, oh, ever so little, it will make her very proud 
and happy.” 

“ Tom will be out of your way now and that ought 
to cut down expenses,” evaded Ted. 

“ Yes, but Alice ought to dress a little better now that 
she is in the high school. She is very faithful, Ted. 
We hope she will cover the four years’ course in three 
years. She rides back and forth with Ruth which saves 
a good deal, yet there are numerous little demands for 
money all the time for paper, books and~ — ” 

“ Abby,” called Mrs. Rollins at this instant, “ do 
come here and look at this cute little suit. It would 
just fit Ben and is only five dollars. A mark down.” 

Ted relieved, started for the speaker and Gail fol- 
lowed him, wondering if her words had hurt him, if 
they had better not have been spoken ; wishing that he 
could know that her anxiety was not so much to get 
what would meet the needs of the home, as to help him 
to the larger life he needed, which could only come to 
him by the jvay of self-denial. 


I NEED HIM TO BE REAL 


*77 


“Tom,” said Ted that evening, “suppose we take 
the eight o’clock train to-morrow evening instead of 
the three-thirty in the afternoon? It would get us in 

B in time for the midnight special. I’ve half a 

mind to go with you all the way and take a peep at 
Horace. I could spare him one day.” 

Gail’s eyes began to shine. “ Delightful ! ” she cried 
clapping her hands, “ such a treat for you to meet an 
old friend.” 

“ And realize all I have lost ? I’m not so sure of 
that,” answered Ted. 

“ You have lost something, that’s a fact,” volunteered 
Dolly. “ I miss it in you.” 

“What do you mean?” Ted’s startled eyes re- 
garded the speaker while Gail bent hers the lower over 
the work in her lap. 

“ I’m not sure that I know what I mean, only you’re 
different from what you were the first time you came 
to this house.” 

“‘Different’! How?” 

“ Oh, I don’t know. I’m not good at definitions. It 
may be the ‘ senator blood ’ in you is running low.” 

“ The * senator blood ’ ! ” 

“ Yes. Tom said that was what made you different 
from the rest of us — the senator blood you inherited 
from Grandpa Weston.” 

Ted colored. “ Don’t be absurd,” he said crossly. 
“ Why shouldn’t a working man appear different from 
a gentleman ? ” 

“ Can’t a working man be a gentleman ? ” It was 
Allie’s quiet voice that asked the question. 

“ One kind, perhaps,” was the brusque reply. 

“ By which you mean,” ventured Gail, “ that there 
M 


i 7 8 


GAIL WESTON 


are two kinds of gentlemen, or two kinds of working 
men, Ted? ” 

“ Whichever you please. If you had been knocked 
around as I have been the nine months past, Dolly, 
you would have lost something.” 

Mrs. Rollins had been listening silently, but she spoke 
now. “ I knew the day would come, Theodore, when 
you’d regret throwing away your prospects as you 
did. You can never be the kind of gentleman I in- 
tended you should be now, and it’s no use expecting it. 
Work soils, and you can’t help it.” 

“ But I suppose he can still be God’s kind of a gen- 
tleman, mother,” cried Gail indignantly, the irritation 
in her voice robbing her words of much of their value. 
“ Perhaps that is better worth expecting ; it certainly 
will leave no cause for regret.” 

Alice, whose sympathetic eyes had sought the sub- 
ject of these remarks at her mother’s words, was 
surprised to note the almost indifference with which 
they were received. She was equally surprised when 
a tide of crimson swept the lifted face as he heard his 
sister’s defense. 

“ I’m sorry not to go to the station with you, Ted,” 
said Dolly at the supper-table the evening of the 
boys’ departure, “ but I plead a prior engagement,” 
grandiloquently. “ Parties are too rare in this quarter 
of the globe to be given up on any pretext.” 

“ I trust I shall be able to bear your absence,” an- 
swered Ted sarcastically. “ I promise not to shed tears 
over your delinquency.” 

“ How unkind ! Did I not ‘ welcome the coming,’ 
even if I cannot ‘ speed the parting guest ’ ? ” questioned 
Dolly lightly. “ I shall have to leave the finishing 


I NEED HIM TO BE REAL I79 

touches of the programme to Alice and Gail — as also 
the dishes, thank goodness ! ” 

“ Where do I come in ? I’m no ‘ guest ' and had no 
‘ welcome.’ It isn’t fair to rob me of my ‘ parting ’ too, 
Doll,” protested Tom. 

“ Oh, you’re only a twin and don’t count,” laughed 
Dolly. “ Haven’t I had to divide all my birthdays with 
you all my life ? ” in an aggrieved voice. “ But if 
you’ll promise to teach your hair to lie down,” pulling 
a couple of Tim’s porcupine quills, “ and straighten 
out your nose,” tweaking that offending member, “ I’ll 
kiss you good-by before I go to the party though there’s 
no reason why I should seeing you’re the other half 
of myself.” 

Gay in the muslin Ted had bought for Alice the 
year before, Dolly presented herself shortly, her hair 
tied with Gail’s prettiest neck-ribbon, her mother’s 
lace handkerchief in her girdle. 

“ How will I do ? ” she asked, revolving slowly 
around before the two boys that they might take in her 
splendor. “ Am I presentable ? ” bowing laughingly 
first to the one then to the other. 

“ Passable,” said Ted who had not forgiven Dolly 
for yesterday’s reference to what he had lost. 

“Immense! Stunning!” cried Tom, and Dolly 
promptly boxed his ears because she wanted to box 
Ted’s and dared not. 

“What have I done?” asked the victim. “Wait till 
I pay you another compliment, Doll.” 

“ I’m thankful that you both will soon be where I 
sha’n’t be bothered with either you or your compli- 
ments,” exclaimed the vexed girl, sweeping out of the 


room. 


i8o 


GAIL WESTON 


A few moments later Tom saw her sail up the street 
and ran after her. “ Dolly, Dolly ! ” he shouted, 
“ you’ve forgotten something.” 

She came back hastily, her hand extended. “ Let 
me have it quick, whatever it is,” she said shortly. 

“ That’s nice. It’s something you agreed to leave 
here.” 

“ What?” 

“ The kiss you promised me. I intend to do my best 
for both hair and nose, so pay up.” 

“ On the street, you ninny ? ” 

Or the housetop, Miss Charming, if no better place 
can be found. I won’t be cheated out of my rights,” 
was the laughing reply as he seized her. 

“ Stop ! Do be careful. This dress is old, you’ll 
tear it. What has got into you, Tom Rollins? You’re 
a new boy since Ted came.” 

“ Since a door opened into the world, you mean,” 
answered Tom kissing her twice. “ Behave yourself 
and perhaps I’ll write you a letter occasionally with 
some estimates of its size. There, shake your skirts 
and you’ll be as good as new. I forgive you for your 
selfishness in taking all the beauty in this combine.” 

“ Thank you, but you ought to when you have taken 
all the chances.” She shook out her skirts as directed 
and blew a kiss from her finger-tips to her half-brother 
who was watching them from the parlor window much 
amused at the success of Tom’s ruse. 

Mrs. Rollins did not attempt to walk to the station 
with the boys, but she put the children to bed in order 
that the two girls might do so. The train was already 
in, there was but a moment to spare for tickets and 
baggage and they were off, waving good-by from the 


I NEED HIM TO BE REAL l8l 

car window. Alice and Gail stood motionless looking 
after the iron monster that was bearing away their 
brothers until it was a mere speck in the distance — until 
it disappeared altogether — until the last vestige of smoke 
thrown back from its nostrils was swallowed up in the 
darkness. Then they turned slowly homeward. They 
were very quiet, each busy with her own thoughts, until 
they reached the belt of woods which lay between the 
village and their destination. Then Alice drew closer 
to her sister as if for protection, shivering a little. 
They were half-way through it before she spoke. 

“ Gail,” she whispered then, “ Gail, is Ted different, 
or do I imagine it ? ” 

“ Oh, Alice!” 

‘‘It startled me when Dolly said what she did yes- 
terday, but I had felt it and felt as if I could never 
bear to let him go back — back to temptation. Ted is 
such a dear boy — such a dear, dear boy! Gail, what 
does it mean ? ” 

The elder sister placed one hand affectionately on 
the other’s arm. “ It means that I have not prayed for 
him as I ought,” she said humbly. 

“ And I have scarcely prayed for him at all,” cried 
Alice in bitter self-reproach. “ I’ve barely mentioned 
him with the others in my prayers. I never thought of 
him as needing special prayer, he was always so clean, 
and bright, and good. O Gail, I have had such a bur- 
den on my heart since he came home. I don’t know 
how to bear it or what to do. If we could only have 
kept him here.” 

Alice was voicing what Gail’s heart had been saying 
to itself — “ If we could only keep him here.” 

“ God is in the city, Allie, as well as here,” she said 


GAIL WESTON 


182 

trying to comfort another while her own heart was 
all uncomforted. 

“ Yes, but — God is so far off, Gail. I’m afraid it’s 
wicked to say it — to think it — but he seems a great way 
off sometimes and we all need some one right beside us.” 

“ He says he is beside us, Allie. ‘ I am with thee, 
saith the Lord, to deliver thee.’ ” That text was in 
Gail’s Bible lesson for the day. 

“ Yes, I know and of course it must be true, but it 
doesn’t seem true and what we want, what we need 
is to have things seem true as well as be true. Ted 
wants to feel somebody’s hand as I feel yours on my 
arm. It takes the fear out of me here in the woods 
just to feel it. I knew you were with me before I felt 
your hand, but I was afraid all the same until you 
touched me. Then the fear went and I only felt glad. 
I wish God would touch me like that — touch Ted like 
that.” 

A thrill went through the listening girl, joy took 
possession of her being. “ He has touched me like 
that,” she said, the vibration of a great joy in her voice. 
“ I’ve felt him as real as that, Allie, and it was when 
I was afraid. One night when your father was so 
sick and I was alone with him I was afraid, oh, terri- 
bly afraid. I thought he was dying and he did not want 
to die ; he was not ready. Mother was tired and nerv- 
ous, she had cried herself to sleep. I dared not wake 
her. You were all small, I had no one but God. 
I felt he must come close to me, I was frightened at 
being alone. I told him so, that I was only a little 
girl and had never seen anybody die and that poor 
father could not die as he was. I asked him to stop 
the death angel if he was coming, to give us a little 





*% 



<< 


by side in the edge of the zvoods 
knelt to pray.” 

Page 183 






I NEED HIM TO BE REAL 1 83 

more time. I told him I knew he was able to do it, and 
I would trust him to do it, and he did. And, Alice, 
he came near. I don’t know how he did it, but he 
came. I know he said ‘ Yes ’ to all I asked, and I was 
so glad, so sure, I began to sing, and then father 
opened his eyes quite naturally and listened. After- 
ward — when he could speak— he asked me to pray 
God to forgive a sinner who deserved nothing but his 
anger. He told me weeks afterward that he gave his 
heart to God that night and that my singing brought 
him back to earth when he seemed to be drifting into 
eternity in the dark. 1 1 knew then that God had given 
me another chance,’ he said, ‘ and that I must improve 
it, and I did,’ and that was just what I had asked for, 
Allie, another chance — a little more time.” 

“ Yes,” whispered Alice through her tears. “ If we 
ask him to help Ted in the same way you asked him to 
help father, won’t he do it ? ” 

“ We will stop and ask him now — here,” answered 
Gail, and side by side in the edge of the woods they 
knelt to pray. 

It was as they came in sight of the little yellow cot- 
tage that Alice broke the silence that followed that 
prayer. “Has God been real to you ever since that 
night with father, Gail ? ” 

“Yes; most of the time.” 

“ Everybody cannot have such an experience, yet 
everybody needs God to be real, Gail. How can he 
become real to weak people like me ? ” 

“ I think,” her sister halted in the road in her earnest- 
ness. “I think he becomes real when we make him 
real,” she said. “ If you count me your true friend 
you come to me in trouble, you share your joys with 


184 


GAIL WESTON 


me; and in that way you learn that my friendship is 
really what you thought it, that I am truly your 
friend. I believe if you will tell him things — everything 
— in that way, Allie; run to him with your lessons, 
your sewing, your desires, every bit of your good or 
bad times; share with him both your burdens and your 
pleasures — the hunts with Ruth for nuts and flowers 
and ” 

But Alice, lifting glowing eyes, broke in with a sort 
of ecstasy, “Will he care for such things?” 

“ * The very hairs of your head are numbered ’ ; 
4 are not two sparrows sold for a farthing ? and one of 
them shall not fall on the ground without your Father ’ ; 
* Ye are of more value than many sparrows’; ‘Your 
heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these 
things ’ ; ‘ Casting all your care upon him, for he 
careth for you ’ ; ‘ Who giveth us richly all things to 
enjoy,’ ” quoted Gail. “ I know of no way of making 
God real, Allie, but that of counting him real and treat- 
ing him as though he .were.” 

“ I’ll do it, I’ll do it,” cried the younger sister. “ I 
need Him to be real.” 


XV 


A “forgib me" prayer 



ET had a little friend with her in the yard and 


A was regaling her small ears with wonderful stories 
of Tom’s sudden exaltation. 

“ Our Tom has eberythin’ now,” she said with a 
sweeping gesture of one dimpled hand. “ does — the 
nicest does you ever saw — an’ a fall overcoat ” — this 
fact had impressed Pet perhaps because it had so over- 
whelmed Tom. “ An’ he lives in a big house all made 
out’r gold, and eats out’r dishes that — are — are — well, 
awful nice. He’s rich now, Sissy, awful rich, richer’n 
anybody, an’ he has a teacher all his own, an’ takes 
lessons on the piano, an’ is goin’ to a colly some day. 
Dolly says he can hab ice-cream ebery day if he wants 


Ben had come while his little sister was holding forth 
and stood listening with very serious eyes. “ Your 
mower told me to send you home, Sissy, if you was at 
my house,” he said to the small edition of maiden- 
hood who was swallowing with relish the marvels 
Pet served up. “ She says your dinner’s ready.” 

“ Oh, dear ! ” cried Sissy, swinging her hat by the 
elastic, “ I don’t see why that old dinner needs to be 
ready now ! I want to hear about Tom.” 

“ You’d better go,” counseled Ben gravely. “ Pve 
got to talk to Pet quick an’ it’s somethin’ I can’t say 
’fore you.” 


185 


GAIL WESTON 


1 86 

Sissy swung her hat more vigorously at this. “ I 
guess I don’t want to know your old secret, Ben Rol- 
lins,” she said. “ Me an’ Susie Jones has one of our 
own. I’ll come over after school, Pet, an’ then you’ll 
tell me the rest of it, won’t you ? ” 

“ It’s ’mos’ all tole,” answered Pet uncomfortably, 
“ oney Tom has a dorg named Winks.” She called this 
last information after the little flying figure. 

“ Our Tom’s not rich, Pet, an’ you oughtn’t ter say 
he is,” began Ben the instant the intruder disappeared. 
“ He tole me ’fore he went he wasn’t goin’ to be rich, 
oney — oney he’s sort’r handled by rich folks, that’s all. 
An’ if he was rich you oughtn’t talk about it much. 
Ted tole Dolly it wasn’t — wasn’t tasty to — to brag.” 

“ I didn’t brag, Ben Rollins, you know I didn’t,” 
declared Pet her cheeks very red indeed. “ Sissy said 
her uncle was richer’n our folks, an’ he isn’t richer’n 
our Tom an’ I said he wasn’t.” 

“ But he is,” said Ben. “ Tom isn’t rich at all oney 
he has nice thin’s, an’ ’sides you know he couldn’t live 
in a gold house ’cause they don’t make houses out of 
gold.” 

“ Mr. Franksin could make one out of gold, I guess, 
if he wanted to, Ben Rollins. Anyway his house is just 
as good as gold ; Dolly said so when I ast her las’ night 
when she was puttin’ me to bed. She said if it wasn’t 
gold it was just as good.” 

“ Pet,” questioned Ben severely, “ didn’t you know it 
wasn’t all true, what you tole Sissy ? ” 

“ I — I kinder — kinder wanted it to be true,” quavered 
the little girl under this pressure. 

“ But kinder wantin’ doesn’t make it true an’ it’s 
awful wicked to tell lies. God hears ’em an’ they 


A “ FORGIB ME " PRAYER 1 87 

make him feel bad. You’ll have to say a ‘forgib me’ 
prayer quick.” 

“ I don’t know any ‘ forgib ’ prayer,” wailed Pet. 

Benny took one of the culprit’s small hands in both 
of his. Her sorrow grieved him. “ There’s a little bit 
ob * forgib me ’ in ‘ Our Farver which art in heaben,’ ” 
he said, “ an’ you know that. Shut your eyes an’ say it 
quick, I’ll help you, an’ when you come to the ‘ forgib 
me ’ part say it hard. Not loud — ’cause somebuddy 
might hear — but hard — hard inside of you I mean.” 

“ I know a boy who has told a lie,” said Dolly ma- 
liciously as, a few minutes later, Ben thrust his head 
in at the kitchen door. The girl had been washing that 
morning and had a window let down from the top, 
through which had come Pet’s boastful words to Sissy 
Dorrance, and later, Ben’s words of reproof. Amused 
at the little girl’s bragging and indignant at her small 
brother’s interference, Dolly had gone to the window 
to take Pet’s part, but the drollery of the scene kept 
her quiet. She determined to settle with Ben some 
other time. 

She did not wait long for her opportunity. As soon 
as Ben entered the door she began. “ I know a boy 
who has told a lie.” 

“ Not me? ” cried the little fellow in alarm. 

“ Yes, it was you if my ears heard aright. Ted never 
said it wasn’t * tasty ’ to brag, Ben Rollins.” 

“ I — I heard him,” protested the boy. 

“You didn’t. How could you when he never said 
such a thing ? ” 

“ Well, I thought I did.” 

“What has thought to do with it? A lie’s a lie, and 
God writes it down in his big book.” 


GAIL WESTON 


1 88 

“ Not when you don’t mean ’em? ” 

“Did Pet mean to lie? Yet you made her believe 
she did.” 

“ But — but,” stammered Ben, “ Pet wanted it to be 
true when it wasn’t, an’ — an’ I didn’t want it to be true, 
I oney fought it was true ” 

“ When it wasn’t,” mimicked Dolly. “ If it wasn’t 
true it was false, and falsehood is lying.” 

“ You’re ’most as bad as a lie,” cried the boy near to 
tears. “ You’re glad it wasn’t true an’ — an’ I never 
was glad ’cause Pet said wrong thin’s, I was oney sorry. 
I wanted her to be good.” 

“ Good, you little egotist ! She’s lots gooder than you 
are at her worst. You’d better be saying a ‘ forgive 
me ’ prayer yourself and precious quick too.” 

“ Benny,” said Mrs. Rollins, coming from the room 
beyond at the sound of his voice, “ I want you to run 
to the store as fast as your legs can travel and get me 
a spool of silk to match this,” handing him a piece of 
cloth. “ Here’s the money. Now fly. I’ve used up my 
last needleful of silk and that dress must be finished 
before dark.” 

The boy darted off, Dolly’s “ Hurry back or you’ll 
get no dinner,” sounding in his ears. “ I don’t want 
no dinner,” he called back over his shoulder; then, to 
himself, “ I’ll have to pray as I run.” But he found 
Joe Nevins standing at the gate waiting for him. 

“ I’ve got to hurry, Joe,” hinted Ben. “ I can’t talk 
now.” 

“ I guess you can’t keep me from going to the store 
if I want to,” answered the lad offended by this lack 
of cordiality on his friend’s part. “ This road’s as much 
mine as yours, I reckon.” 


A “ FORGIB ME" PRAYER 1 89 

“ ’Course,” assented Ben, and by and by waxed so- 
ciable. The two came back as they went, together. 

“ Eat your dinner, bad boy, the rest of us are through. 
I didn’t know whether I ought to save you any at all, 
but I have,” said Dolly as Ben hung up his cap after 
taking the silk to his mother. “ You can hurry too, 
for I must have some wood before you go back to 
school. I guess you’ll find precious little time for that 
‘ forgive me ’ prayer this noon.” 

“I’ve said it,” answered Ben, his mouth full of 
potato. 

“ Another lie,” cried the girl exultantly. 

“ ’Taint eiver. I whipstered it when I was goin’ to 
the store.” 

“That’s likely, and Joe Nevins with you. He must 
have thought you foolish running for dear life and 
muttering to yourself.” 

“ Didn’t mutter,” growled Ben his usually sunny face 
all shadowed. “ I whipstered it inside.” 

“ Inside ! ” Dolly rattled the dishes in her pan as she 
snapped the word out scornfully. “ Do you think, Ben 
Rollins, that an ‘ inside ’ prayer is going to make up for 
an outside lie? I guess the tongue that spoke the lie 
will have to speak the prayer.” 

The child pushed back his plate and rose to his feet. 
“ I don’t care anythin’ ’bout the lie or the prayer 
eiver, Doll Rollins,” he cried, “ an’ I don’t care if I 
am bad, so there! But you’re perzactly as bad as me, 
anyhow, ’cause you neber eben whipster a ‘ forgib me ’ 
prayer an’ you’re all the time doin’ somethin’ mean. 
I — I don’t like you bery well an’ you can get your own 
old wood. I won’t.” He went out and slammed the door 


GAIL WESTON 


190 

behind him, his little heart hot with anger, his eyes 
filled with indignant tears. 

His sister laughed and called Pet from the adjoining 
room where she was chatting with her mother. “ It’s 
time to get ready for school,” she said, her voice 
trembling with suppressed mirth. “ Come let me brush 
your curls a bit. Whatever you do, Pet, don’t be too 
good.” 

“ Pm not good at all,” answered the wee girl. “ I 
want thin’s to be when they won’t be, an’ I want them 
awful. It’s wicked to tell lies, isn’t it, Dolly? ” 

“ I shouldn’t wonder if it was — sometimes,” answered 
the sister cautiously. 

“You neber tell lies, do you, Dolly?” 

“ Not often — not unless ‘ I want thin’s awful,’ ” 
laughed Dolly. 

“ But God hears ’em an’ writes ’em in his book,” 
began Pet earnestly, “an’ when you die ” 

“ Oh,” interrupted Dolly, “ I mean to say a ‘ forgib 
me ’ prayer before that.” She tied the child’s hair-rib- 
bon and kissed her. “ There, you’ll do,” she said, “ and 
you’re good enough just as you are, Pet. I don’t 
want you to be a bit better. Don’t you mind what Ben 
says. He’s too good. Now run or you’ll be late.” 

“ Dolly,” said her mother, who had come out to the 
kitchen table to press, “ do you think it quite right to 
talk in that way to Pet ? ” 

“ And do you think it quite right, or even fair, that 
I should be the only scalawag left in this family ? ” 
was the merry rejoinder. “ I just won’t be. Pet’s the 
only comfort I’ve got. I warn all pious folks to keep 
hands off of my little sinner.” 

“ Dolly, Dolly Rollins ! ” cried her mother, laughing 


A “forgib me" prayer 191 

nevertheless. “ What would your poor father think if 
he heard you ? ” 

“ Thank goodness he’s where he’s not likely to hear 
me and if he does I won’t know it. Don’t you pretend 
to be a saint, mother, because you’re not and you know 
you’re not. You’re ‘ perzactly ’ as bad as I am, as Ben 
would say. I get all my depravity from you.” 

As Gail came toward home from the squire’s that 
afternoon she spied a little figure waiting by the road- 
side. She knew by the droop of the head that Ben 
was troubled about something, but she did not question 
him. She hastened to bring a shine to the brown eyes. 
“ If here isn’t just what I’ve been wishing for,” she 
cried, “ a boy to run a race with me. I can beat you to 
the old pine, Ben. One, two, three — off ! ” and away 
they went with a dash. Ben was sure to beat. He stood 
breathless but exultant waiting for her when his sister 
reached the goal. 

“ It wasn’t fair,” she exclaimed. “ My skirt got 
wound about me somehow and hindered. I wish we 
had time to go back and try it again. A big fellow like 
you to beat his sister! Let’s skip to the fence over 
there.” 

Ben slipped his small palm into the hand extended 
to him and skipped along at her side his face beaming 
with delight. “ Say,” he said as they reached the 
fence and sobered down, “ can’t God hear inside whip- 
sters just as well as the other kind, Gail?” 

“ Of course,” smiled the girl. “ He can hear us think 
and knows what we are thinking before we know we’ve 
begun.” 

“ There ! ” cried the child triumphantly, “ I ’most 


192 


GAIL WESTON 


knew he did, but Dolly said that kind of ‘ forgib me * 
prayers didn’t count.” 

“ What kind, dear?” 

“ The inside kind. Say, Gail, doesn’t God know when 
we can’t help thin’s ? ” 

“Yes, surely.” 

“ An’ they don’t count then, do they ? ” 

“ Count ! ” said Gail. “ How do you mean ? ” 

“Why, in his big book. Dolly says he keeps all 
wrong thin’s in it.” 

“And if he does, what then, Ben?” 

“ Well, does he count it — against us, I mean — when a 
feller can’t help it?” 

“ I think not, but I could tell better how to answer 
you if I knew just what you were thinking about.” 

Then out came the whole story of his discomfiture. 
“ I just had to whipster it inside ’cause Joe was there,” 
he ended. 

“ What did you whisper, dear ? ” 

“ ‘ Forgib us our trespasses as we forgib those who 
trespass against us.’ ” 

“ ‘ Trespasses,’ ” smiled Gail not used to the word on 
his lips. 

“That’s how we say it at school ebery day an’ Ruth 
says it means ’bout the same as debts. Did you know 
the squire had a big board with a ‘trespass’ on it in 
his orchard? Ruth showed it to me an’ ’splained it. 
Trespass is just doin’ what we oughtn’t to do, an’ I 
say it now ’cause I like it better’n debts ’cause little 
boys neber owe folks anythin’ an’ folks don’t owe little 
boys anythin’.” 

“ Are you sure ? I know a little boy who owes a good 
deal. He owes obedience to his mother and teachers, 


193 


A “ FORGIB ME" PRAYER 

and not obedience only, but his life to God. He owes a 
confession too, when he does wrong — trespasses in any 
way — to whomever he wrongs.” 

Ben’s eyes grew big as he listened. “ And that same 
little boy has debtors whom he must forgive when they 
trespass on his rights.” 

“ That’s Dolly,” commented Ben, “ an’ I s’pose I’ll 
hab to forgib her seein’ she’s in my prayer, though 
she’s an awful big debtor an’ I neber knew she was 
there before. Must I say my prayer ober, Gail, an’ 
say ‘ debts ’ an’ 4 debtors ’ ? ” 

“ No,” smiled his sister, “ one word is as good as 
the other, and a prayer whispered in the heart is as 
good as one spoken by the mouth. You know the Bible 
says ‘ The Lord looketh on the heart ’ ? ” 

Ben’s face beamed with delight. “ My, won’t I go 
for Dolly ! ” he cried. “ She said prayers wasn’t 
counted ’less they was said in words like the lie was. 
It wasn’t a truly lie, was it, Gail ? ” 

“No,” answered the maiden, “it was truth. I heard 
what Ted said and you had his thought if not its exact 
wording. He said, 4 Dolly, it is poor taste to brag.’ ” 
Ben bobbed his curly head to place a kiss on the hand 
holding his and capered along quite forgetful of his 
late distress. He dropped his sister’s palm as they came 
in sight of the house and dashed on ahead and in like a 
small whirlwind. 

“ I didn’t, I didn’t, I didn’t tell a lie,” he cried as he 
confronted Dorothea busy setting the table. “ Ted 
said, * Dolly, it is poor taste to brag,’ an’ I know he did.” 

“ Then you should have said so. I’m sure he never 
said it wasn’t 4 tasty,’ ” laughed the girl. 

“An’ — an’” — continued Ben, his words tumbling 
N 


194 


GAIL WESTON 


over each other in his excitement, “ God does know 
’bout inside prayers. His book says ‘ The Lord looketh 
on the heart/ ‘ Looketh — looketh/ Dolly. So he saw 
what I said/’ 

“ You didn’t say he saw, but that he heard,” quibbled 
the maiden with a comical glance at Gail who had 
followed Ben into the house. “ So I was right.” 

“ No, you wasn’t. It’s just as good to see as to hear 
s’ long’s he knows,” was the exultant reply. “ ‘ The 
Lord looketh on the heart/ He saw my prayer in 
there.” 

“ ‘ The prayers of the wicked are an abomination 
to the Lord,’ ” quoted Dolly. 

“ I’m not wicked.” 

“ No, you’re worse — you’re a conceited little prig and 
I warn you now, I won’t have you making Pet one.” 

Ben smiled loftily. “ Pet a pig ! Why she couldn’t 
be, she’s a girl. I want her good. She’s so little she 
doesn’t know thin’s, so I have to look after her. My ! 
ain’t I hungry ! You cheated me out’r my dinner, Dolly 
Rollins, but I have to forgib you ’cause you’re my 
‘ debtor.’ ” 

“ How kind and condescending ! ” murmured Dolly, 
as Ben took his place at the table. “ Pass me your 
plate and I’ll save you from starvation by helping you 
at once to some of this milk toast. It is an apprecia- 
tion of your extreme kindness in forgiving me. Abby, 
call mother and Alice, do. There’ll be nothing left if 
they don’t hurry, Ben will eat it all.” 


XVI 


TOM A WITNESS 



‘HREE days had passed since his brother had left 


JL Tom at Beechlands with Horace; they had been 
days of revelation. The grounds, the house, the par- 
lors, his own chamber, had all taxed his powers of ex- 
pression ; but the library ! As he stepped over the 
threshold of the spacious, book-lined apartment, he 
halted, amazed and speechless. His wildest dream had 
not prepared him for this. He was unable to answer 
Mr. Franksin’s pleasant, “Well, how will this suit you, 
old fellow ? ” with anything but a faltered “ I didn’t 
know there were so many books in the world.” 

He sat down, on the late afternoon of this third day 
since his arrival, on the piazza steps, in the chill air, 
his face supported by his hands, his eyes on the west- 
ern sky where the sun was setting gloriously. A quick 
footfall sounded on the gravel path, mounted the stairs, 
halted behind the boy, but he did not move. Truth to 
tell he did not hear it. 

“ I fear my ward is homesick,” said a cheery voice, 
as a loving hand was laid on the lad’s arm. 

“Me! Oh, no!” 

“ You miss Ted,” sympathetically. 

“ I have not had him enough to miss him,” answered 
the boy. “ I was just thinking of — Gail.” The name 
came slowly and with a lingering emphasis. 

“Ted’s sister?” 


*95 


196 


GAIL WESTON 


“ Mine too,” jealously. “ I’ve always had her.” 

“ I don’t wonder you miss her,” soothed Horace. 
“ I’m sorry we have no women except Mrs. Harper and 
the housemaids.” 

“ If you had there wouldn’t any of them be our Gail,” 
was the sober reply. 

“ That’s a fact. Tell me about her.” Horace seated 
himself beside his protege anxious to comfort him, a 
little curious to learn more about Ted’s sister. 

“ There doesn’t seem much to tell when you try to 
tell it,” said Tom slowly and after a little pause. 
“ She’s not like any one else, you know, and after a 
fellow’s used to her he doesn’t know how to get along 
without her, that’s all; and it isn’t what she says or 
does either, that I can make out, but it’s just her being 
around.” 

“ I see.” The young man’s evident understanding 
made the boy’s heart go out to him and he became 
unusually communicative. 

“ The house was never the same when she was off 
anywhere,” he continued ; “ it looked different — every- 
thing, I mean, things like chairs and tables. I don’t 
know why, but it was so for a fact. She seemed to get 
into things and make them all right by just being 
around.” 

“ That’s high praise,” sighed Horace. “ Does she 
look like Ted?” 

“ No; none of us do. Dolly says that’s because Ted’s 
made of Dresden china, like Ruth Banscombe, while 
the rest of us are only common delft. But there’s 
nothing common about Gail.” 

“ Miss Ruth is very lovely, is she not ? ” 

“Yes; and she’s all right too. She thinks the world 


TOM A WITNESS 


197 


of our Gail. She says Gail is the most beautiful person 
she ever saw, but when I told Gail that she laughed 
and said her beauty was of the kind that only love 
could discover.” 

“ I should think that might be a very nice kind,” 
observed Tom’s companion reflectively. “ Private 
property, you know. She is pretty though, I suppose ? ” 

“ I never saw any one that suited me better,” an- 
swered Tom promptly. “ She has great eyes — big and 
gray ; bigger than mine, and my, but they’re deep ! A 
fellow never gets tired of looking into them and never 
gets to the bottom of them; they’re like her heart. 
You’re never afraid to look into them either, even 
when you know you’ve been as mean as dirt, though 
they make you feel as sorry as time.” 

Tom’s enthusiasm was infectious, it swept Horace 
along in its wake. “ She must be glorious,” he ex- 
claimed. “ And I’ve robbed you of all that ? I can 
never make it up to you. I wonder you could leave 
her.” 

“ It was the hardest thing about coming away,” 
confessed Tom, “but you see I had ‘agreed’ and I 
couldn’t well back out when it came, even if I had 
wanted to, and I didn’t want to. I wanted my educa- 
tion more than anything else.” 

“ You shall have it, I promise you that,” said Horace 
earnestly, “ but I don’t understand what you mean 
by ‘ agreed.’ Would you mind telling me? ” 

“Not if you really want to know,” stammered Tom, 
disliking the task. “ It was something just between 
Gail and me and — God, though I should have put him 
first.” And there, under the fading skies, Horace 
Franksin heard for the first time of a God who is 


198 


GAIL WESTON 


man’s Friend and answers his prayers — a God who had 
used him to answer one prayer. His being thrilled 
as he listened, a whole big new world opening at his 
feet — to his heart. This girl of whom he had been 
hearing went to God as to a father, laid before him her 
needs, expected he would satisfy them. And God had 
answered her, answered her through him — Horace 
Franksin. Over and over, with a glow of delight he 
came back to that fact — the almost miracle beyond be- 
lief — that he had been the person chosen — used by God 
to answer another’s prayers. 

“ God is real to your sister, Tom,” he whispered. 

“ You see she knows him,” Tom assented, his voice 
shaken. 

“ And it seems it was he who gave you to me ? ” 
Horace with difficulty controlled his voice. “ You’re 
mine by right,” his arm slipping about the boy. “ I 
hope he’ll help me to do the straight thing by you since 
you’re his first gift to me.” 

“Not his first,” answered Tom timidly. “He gave 
Jesus to us all long ago.” 

The young man did not reply, but the lad’s heart sang 
for joy. He had borne witness for the first time to his 
Master. 

“No letter yet?” Gail had run out to meet Alice 
as she came down the road, unmindful of the wind 
which endeavored to pick her up bodily and blow, her 
away. 

“ Not from Ted, but there’s one from Tom and it’s 
for you. You mustn’t even look unbelief, Gail. We’ve 
* agreed as touching one thing,’ and it wasn’t Ted’s 
letter-writing, but himself.” 


TOM A WITNESS 199 

“True,” answered Gail soberly. “You are braver 
than I am, Allie.” 

“ Not braver, but learning day by day how real God 
is. Since he is real his promises are sure. I refuse to 
harbor fear concerning Ted.” 

For reply her sister kissed her and they both ran 
back to the house, Tom’s letter which Gail had torn 
open, flapping in the wind. 

“ My ! how lucky some people are ! ” grumbled Dolly 
as her sister read the precious epistle aloud. “ What a 
lot of nice things he has and he doesn’t half appreciate 
them. Fancy his arguing against another suit of 
clothes and fearing he’ll get too many ! If I was in his 
shoes for a few days I’d make the money flyi Dear me, 
he has everything to be thankful for.” 

“ So have we,” assented Gail her eyes soft with joy 
as she read the postscript, marked “ private,” which 
told of Tom’s first witness for his Master. “ I was 
afraid it would be hard to speak for him and kept 
dreading the time when I must, and then it was here 
and past before I knew it,” he wrote. “ But I knew it 
as soon as I had spoken, Gail, and something glad went 
all through me.” 

The long winter months passed with the most meager 
news of Ted’s welfare and absolutely no money from 
that quarter. Gail’s anxiety was often tinged with 
indignation at the thought of his neglect. But in- 
dignation could not live long in the fond heart where 
fear constantly battled for a foothold. She could not 
pray for him while angry with him, and prayer was 
her only solace now as well as her one ground of hope. 
But if Ted was disappointing surely Tom was a 


200 


GAIL WESTON 


satisfaction. No week failed to bring his letter and the 
first week of each month it held the allowance which 
Horace generously bestowed on his ward. 

“ I don’t need money and I’ve told Horace so,” wrote 
the boy, “ but he insists on my taking it. ‘ Everybody 
needs a little money,’ he says, but I don’t; I’m not used 
to it, and when a fellow has all he wants, and more than 
he knows what to do with, how’s he going to spend 
money? But I can do as I please with it.” 

There came a week in mid-winter which brought no 
letter from Tom. Ere the week’s close Mrs. Rollins 
received a few lines from Horace. “ Tom is sick, and 
troubled because he cannot write to you, so I am taking 
his place,” wrote the young man. “You must not 
worry for the doctor assures me there is no need of 
anxiety and I will let you know if he grows worse or 
does not improve as he ought.” 

Tom indeed was not so seriously ill as the doctor 
feared for a while he might be, but he was obliged to 
give up his books and go to bed. “ Keep him still and 
warm and give him his medicine regularly and I guess 
he’ll come out all right,” the physician said to Mrs. 
Harper at the end of the first week of the boy’s illness. 
“ We just nabbed the disease in time.” 

There was no difficulty in keeping the lad still and 
warm, but when it came to taking his medicine it was 
a different matter. 

“ This isn’t what I’ve been having,” he complained as 
soon as the new draught was brought to his bedside. 

“ No, the doctor has changed your medicine. You’re 
getting better, you know,” answered the woman sooth- 
ingly. “ Now drink it down like a good boy and you’ll 
soon be on your feet again.” 


TOM A WITNESS 


201 


“ I can’t take it,” said Tom sniffing at the mixture. 

“ I’m sure you will,” coaxed the housekeeper. 

“Well, I won’t.” The patient shut his mouth reso- 
lutely against the proffered dose. 

“ But the doctor has ordered it.” 

“ I don’t care if he has.” 

“ You’ll be ill again if you don’t take it, perhaps 
worse than you’ve been yet.” 

“ I don’t care if I am.” 

“ What will Mr. Horace say ? Think how he will 
feel when I tell him you won’t take your medicine.” 

“ I can’t do it however he feels.” 

In vain did Mrs. Harper try to administer the ob- 
noxious dose. She repaired at last to the library and 
her young master. 

“ He’ll take it for me all right,” said the young man 
with assurance as soon as he heard of the difficulty. 
“ Poor fellow ! he feels bad and I expect it is nasty 
stuff, but he never refuses me anything.” 

But Tom refused him this thing. “ I can’t,” he said 
at first to his coaxings and “ I won’t ” finally to his 
commands. 

“ But you must,” said Horace decidedly, nettled by 
the boy’s stubbornness. “ The doctor has ordered it and 
you must take it.” 

Tom buried his face in the pillow. “ I’ll never take it,” 
he cried, “ and my head aches. I wish you’d let me 
alone.” 

That pitiful, “my head aches,” cooled the anger in 
his young guardian’s breast. He turned to Mrs. Har- 
per. “The little chap is suffering,” he said. “I fear 
his mind may be wandering a bit.” 

“ If it is there’s all the more reason this medicine 


202 


GAIL WESTON 


should go down. I think we’ll have to force him to 
take it,” answered the lady. 

“ You can’t do it.” This from the belligerent. “ I 
told Gail I’d never touch alcohol and I won’t. It’s in 
that medicine thick — I smell it. Nobody’ll make me 
drink it.” 

The young man’s face lightened, he began to under- 
stand. There was method in Tom’s madness. “ Your 
sister was not thinking of medicine — a doctor’s pre- 
scription — when she asked you never to touch strong 
drink, Tom,” he began persuasively, stooping over the 
patient and placing a cool hand on the burning brow. 
“ If she were here now she would advise you to take 
this I am sure.” 

“A lot she would,” scoffed Tom. “You don’t know 
our Gail.” 

Horace raised himself and turned a puzzled face to- 
ward his housekeeper. “ What can we do ? ” he asked. 
Then, as a new idea suggested itself, “ How would it 
do to heat the mixture? Alcohol evaporates readily. 
We might get rid of it in that way.” 

“ It might do all right if we were sure the heat would 
not harm some other ingredient of the medicine,” she 
replied. “I advise you, Mr. Horace,” she went on, 
“ to just let it go till the doctor comes again. He’ll 
know how to deal with the boy and if he dies before 
that time we’re not to blame. We’ve done our best.” 
The lady’s voice showed the irritation she felt. 

“ Everybody dies — sometime — I guess,” said the 
small fellow from the bed, speaking very slowly, a 
pause between each word. “ I’ll take the chances. I 
‘ agreed ’ with Gail and I’ll keep my word.” 

“ ‘ Agreed ’ with Gail ! ” Horace was reminded of 


TOM A WITNESS 


203 


that talk with his protege the first week of his sojourn 
with him. His heart went out to the sturdy culprit. 

“ Let him have his own way, Mrs. Harper,” he said. 
“ I’ll see Doctor Blanchard at once. Maybe he can 
give him something else — something without alcohol 
in it.” 

The youth stooped over the bed before he left the 
room. “ I don’t know whether you are a hero or a 
tyrant, Tom,” he smiled, “ but I admire your grit and I 
wouldn’t for the world ask you to break faith with your 
sister.” 

“ You’d better not,” answered the boy crossly. “ I 
say, get out, will you, and let me go to sleep.” 

A week later Tom was lying among the cushions of a 
big chair drawn up before the immense library fireplace 
where the blazing logs were piled high when Horace 
came in, his face glowing from exercise, his person 
radiating the outdoor atmosphere. “ There’s something 
you’ll prize,” he said, tossing the boy a letter, and sat 
down before the fire where he could watch him as he 
read. 

“ Something pretty good, I judge,” he said presently. 
“ Isn’t there a crumb or two you can throw to me out 
of your full plate? I never had a sister, or anybody 
else, who cared to write me nice letters.” 

Tom glanced up hastily, something in the speaker’s 
voice touched him. “ Here, read the whole thing,” he 
said, flinging the letter into his friend’s lap. “ She 
wouldn’t care, and what’s mine is yours. Wait till I 
go away. I’ll write you letters.” 

“ Ah, but I can afford to miss letters better than I 
can afford to spare you,” smiled Horace. “ I didn’t ask 
you for your whole letter, Tom. I thought perhaps 


204 


GAIL WESTON 


there might be a word here and there you could spare 
without loss.” 

“ Go ahead. Read it all, though I guess you’ll think 
she’s crazy,” answered the boy his cheeks flaming. 
“ She always thought me a sight better than I was. 
Go ahead, I say. I want you to read it; I sha’n’t like 
it if you don’t.” 

Thus commanded, Horace spread out the sheet. “ I 
feel like a burglar,” he said, a flush of something like 
shame mounting his brow as he began to read. It ran 
as follows: 

You Dearest Tom : It was such a treat to get a letter 
from your own self and know positively that you were 
better. I have found it hard to keep still and wait for news 
when I wanted to run to you and look out for you myself, 
though I knew all the while that your splendid Horace was 
taking such care of you as I could not. And oh, you 
comfort, comfort, comfort, it was beautiful of you not 
to take that medicine with alcohol in it. I am as proud 
of you as I can be. Alcohol is never good; never. I 
was reading the other day what an eminent physician says 
about it. I cannot quote his words, but their substance 
was that alcohol, even in smallest quantities, is harmful; 
that there is always something — whatever the case — which 
will do equally well, if not better, and that without en- 
dangering the patient’s morals. What I am proudest of 
is that you were bound to keep your word to God and 
your sister at any cost to yourself. That’s heroic; that’s 
best manhood. 

Horace leaned over and patted Tom’s knee. “ She’s 
right,” he said. “ I agree with her.” The letter pro- 
ceeded : 

I know you will want to hear all the news, and there’s 
always such a lot of it at Greenville. There’s a new barn 
being built — think of that! — and Mrs. Eastman talks of 
having a bay window. Then Mrs. Banscombe and Ruth 
are going away — not both together, though at the same 
time — because the squire is obliged to take a trip West, 


TOM A WITNESS 


205 


and his wife thinks it too far to travel in cold weather, 
yet is unwilling to stay at home without him. My private 
opinion is that she’s glad of an excuse to visit an old 
school friend, but you needn’t tell her I said so. 

Ruth goes to her grandmother for the first week of her 
absence and wants to take Dolly with her. Isn’t that 

lovely? As Mrs. B ’s going sets me at liberty, Dolly 

can be spared as well as not, and I’m so thankful. I’ve 
worried a little about her. I’ve been able to lift much 
of the work from her shoulders, but not to give her the 
change she needs. She is too young to be confined so 
much, and she is confined, though she manages to run 
about a lot with the girls. Housework can become 
drudgery, and everybody needs a vacation once in a while. 
I’m glad hers has come, and only wish it was to be 
longer. It is to be spent with Ruth, however, and that is 
enough to add oceans of enjoyment to any kind of a time. 

Mother is pretty well this winter, only she tires easily, 
and Allie is doing splendid work at school. She’s so good, 
I shouldn’t know how to get on without her. We have 
not heard from Ted for several weeks now, but you know 
’tis said “ no news is good news.” 

Ben and Pet grow more precious every day. Ben tries 
hard to be good, and suceeds pretty well too, though his 
love of mischief gets him into many a scrape. The latest 
was a bonfire. Some one emptied an old straw bed on 
the vacant lot and he and Joe Nevins discovered it. I 
haven’t a doubt that Ben proposed the fire, and know he 
pilfered the matches from the kitchen to start it, and the 
box Dolly uses to hold her tub on washdays to keep it 
going. Only the snow prevented the trees from catching. 
Ruth came along just as Ben was whirling a blazing brand 
about his head, yelling, meanwhile, like an Indian. “ Why, 
Ben,” she cried, “ I thought you such a good little boy.” 
You’d laugh to hear her tell what followed. 

“ I — I’m not good clear through yet, Ruth,” he acknowl- 
edged, dropping the firebrand reluctantly at her command. 
“ It takes God a long time to make fellers good all over, an’ 
course it’ll take an awful long time for me, ’cause I grow 
so fast. But,” he added cheerfully, “I don’t mind much. 
What’s the use of hurryin’ ’slong’s I’m finished some 
time?” 

The reader looked up from the page he was perusing 
to laugh heartily. “ That’s rich ! What a funny chap 


206 


GAIL WESTON 


Ben must be. However did you keep your face straight 
over this part of the letter, Tom? ” 

“I hadn’t read it all,” confessed Tom. “There’s 
plenty of time.” 

“ You’re like Ben, hey? ‘What’s the use of hurryin’ 
’slong’s it’s finished sometime?’ I’m a disgusting ass 
to have cheated you out of the first reading, but I’ll 
even up by denying myself that last page.” 

“ Indeed you won’t, but I’ll tell you what you might 
do — read the whole thing out loud to me beginning with 
what it says about Allie.” Horace obeyed and they 
shouted together over Ben’s escapade ; then he read on : 

I must not write much more, for the two children have 
come from school, and Allie will be here presently. I hear 
Pet’s little voice, shaken with awe, telling Ben, “ Sissy 
Nevins’ dorg chlor’formed (chloroformed) hisse’f ’cause he 
had a fit, an’ Joe’s farver put him in a box an’ Sissy an’ 
me cried when Joe dug the hole. It — it’s wicked to put 
poor little dorgs in holes way under the snow when it’s 
so cold.” I must run out and comfort her. Please thank 
Mr. Franksin, in my name as well as your own, for all 
the kindness he has shown you. It is too great for words, 
and so is my gratitude. With more love than Uncle Sam 
would carry for two cents if he knew about it, 

Sister Gail. 

“ How rich you are ! ” sighed Horace as he folded 
the sheet slowly his eyes going over those closing L words 
again. 

“ You bet, and she’s better than any letter.” 

“ So merry and so loving,” continued the young man, 
placing the letter in the envelope and, with seeming re- 
luctance, passing it to his ward. 

“And so good. There isn’t a saint in the calendar 
that’s half as good, yet she can race, and play ball, and 
study, as hard as the next one.” 


TOM A WITNESS 


207 


“ Has she had good school advantages ? ” 

“ No, but she had father, and she’s always reading 
or studying something. If what Mr. Barnes says is 
true, and a liberal education can be had by constant 
reading, then Gail has it. We never studied anything 
at school — any of us — but she kept up with us at home.” 

“ Where does she get books ? ” 

“ The squire has a lot and she’s at his house as much 
as she’s at home. Then my father had a good many 
books. He loved study and taught Gail. He could 
teach when he was too sick to work and she was a 
good deal like him. He started me — he’s only been dead 
two years — but Gail was older than the rest of us and 
smarter and could take more in. She took care of him 
for years while mother was away at work. When he 
died mother did not like to see his books around, they 
reminded her of him, so Gail and I nailed some boards 
to the eaves of the shed-chamber where I slept and 
packed them all there. I’ve seen her studying while 
she washed dishes, her grammar propped up on the 
shelf over the sink — she 1 put the shelf there on purpose. 
She often lets Doll off and does the work alone to get 
a chance to study.” 

“ I suppose she could hardly be spared to go away to 
school ? ” 

“ The whole house would go to pieces without her, 
and what would Ben and Pet do? If they’re to come 
up in any shape they’ll need her.” 


XVII 


A CALL TO THE CITY 

“TT’s just dig, dig, dig; sweat, sweat, sweat! and 

JL every day the same as the last,” fretted Dolly. 

“ So it is,” admitted Gail with a sigh, “ but perhaps 
that’s what we need.” 

“ Tah-rah-rah ! It’s not what I need. If it’s good 
for you, you’re welcome to it; it’s not good for me. 
I’m sick of it.” 

“ Do stand still, Dolly, if you want me to fit you 
decently,” exclaimed her sister with some irritation. 

“ I am standing still — as still as I can. I suppose this 
old jacket of Ruth Banscombe’s is one of the things I’m 
expected to be thankful for ? ” 

“ Allie would be if it would fit her.” 

“Which, thank goodness, it won’t. I ought to fall 
heir to a few decencies. She can go to school if she 
can’t wear somebody’s cast-offs.” 

“ You might have had your turn at school had you 
cared, and this jacket is not old, it’s almost as good as 
new and will be quite so when I buy a little braid out 
of Tom’s allowance to trim it with.” 

“ I’m glad my other half amounts to something if I 
don’t,” laughed Dolly. 

“I guess we all are. There, that’s ready for stitch- 
ing. Leave an iron on the stove when you’re done with 
them, please. I shall have a little pressing to do.” Gail 
gathered up her work and went to the sitting-room 
208 


A CALL TO THE CITY 


209 


where the old sewing-machine stood and Dolly took 
one of Pet’s small aprons from the clothes basket and 
gave it a vigorous shake. Both worked steadily for 
a half-hour, the muffled whirr of the sewing-machine 
in the one room and the thud of a flat-iron in the other 
the only sounds that disturbed the silence. Then came 
a tap on the outer door and before Dolly could answer 
it some one pushed it open and Ruth Banscombe’s 
blooming face peeped in. 

“ How nice and warm you smell. The wind is chilly. 
What artist has been painting your cheeks, Dolly ? ” 

“ Mr. Flat-iron. When did you get home ? Has your 
mother come too ? ” 

“ Yes, and papa. We’re a united family once more. 
Papa went to Orono for mamma, and then both of them 
came to Raymond for me. We arrived at Greenville 
less than an hour ago. I ran away the moment I could. 
Where’s Gail?” 

“ In the sitting-room. That old machine makes so 
much noise she hasn’t heard your voice or she’d be in 
evidence. Did you have a nice time? ” 

“Oh, splendid! I wish you knew Emma Winters. 
She’s the j oiliest girl! I suppose Allie’s at school. 
May I go in and see Gail ? ” 

“ Of course. I’ve only two more pieces to finish 
and then I’ll come too. Aren’t you thankful you’re not 
a drudge ? ” 

“ A helper in the world, do you mean ? Such drudges 
count.” 

“ I’ve come for you, dear. Put on your hat at once.” 
Ruth had her arms about her friend’s neck before that 
friend perceived her presence. 

“ Ruth ! Home again ? How glad I am to see you ! 


o 


210 


GAIL WESTON 


No, dear, I can’t go with you. To-morrow is Satur- 
day, and this garment is needed for Sunday.” 

“ But you must come. I have something to say to 
you that I cannot say here and it’s important. Don’t 
shake your head. Put on your hat and cloak at once 
and save time. I must speak to you alone — we can’t 
run any risks. Isn’t there something you need at the 
store? I’ll go with you.” 

The maiden’s earnestness aroused the fear ever slum- 
bering in Gail’s breast. “O Ruth, is it Ted?” she 
asked. 

Ruth nodded her bright head and there was no 
further need of urgency. Gail’s hat and wrap were on 
in a moment. “ I’m going after the braid for your 
coat,” she said to Dolly as they passed through the 
kitchen. She hurried across the road and up over the 
hill. “Now tell me all?” she cried halting before her 
breathless companion when they were well out of 
sight of the house. 

“ Don’t look so — awful. O Gail, I hope it isn’t so 
very bad, but he needs you. I know that’s what he 
needs. He’s going wrong.” 

“ Wrong ! What has he done ? ” 

“ Now you are thinking of dreadful things and of 
course he wouldn’t do them. He — he’s wild — Mr. 
Horne told papa he was anxious about the boy, disap- 
pointed in him — feared he was being led astray. Gail, 

don’t look like that ” breaking off abruptly in her 

statements. 

Unconsciously Gail’s hand crept to her heart. “ What 
else?” she gasped. “Tell me all, Ruth.” 

“ That is all. Papa thinks he may be drinking a little 
from what Mr. Horne said ” * 


A CALL TO THE CITY 


21 1 


“Drinking! O Ruth, he did not say Ted had been 
drinking ? ” 

“ Perhaps he didn’t.” Ruth’s tears were falling fast. 
“ Perhaps papa misunderstood. Of course he did, stupid 
old dear ! Gail, don’t feel so bad. I’m sure it isn’t 
true. Of course Ted wouldn’t drink, he couldn’t. It 
was because papa was interested in Ted that Mr. Horne 
said anything to him about it. He wouldn’t have cared 
so much — would have got rid of him — if it hadn’t been 
that papa recommended him.” 

Gail stood, her back against a tree as if for support. 
Her eyes were looking straight ahead, but they did not 
see anything. A deathly faintness was at her heart. 
Not her brother only but God himself seemed failing 
her. Had not she and Alice agreed for Ted? and 
was not the promise, “ If two of you shall agree on 
earth as touching anything that they should ask, it 

shall be done for them of my Father which is in 

heaven ? ” Her hands hung nerveless at her side. 
Giant Despair had laid siege to her soul. 

Ruth lifted one listless hand. “ Somebody must help 
him, Gail. He needs you. You must go to him.” 

But the girl shook her head. “ What can I do ? He 
has not written to me since he was here last,” she 

faltered, delivering up the secret she had hidden so 

carefully in her deepest heart. 

“ He is a bad, bad boy ! I wish he had never come to 
Greenville to bother you. He deserves to suffer,” 
began Ruth indignantly. “ He isn’t worthy of such a 
sister.” 

Unwittingly the maiden had said the thing best cal- 
culated to arouse her friend. The sister could not bear 
to hear her brother blamed; she began to defend him. 


212 


qAIL WESTON 


“ He never meant to do wrong, Ruth,” she protested 
earnestly. “ Perhaps he has not written for fear he 
might say something in his letters that would lead me 
to suspect his sin — that might grieve me.” 

“ In that case you ought to go to him. If he cares 
for you so much you may be able to save him. Mamma 
thinks so and papa says it may help. It’s all that can 
be done anyway.” 

“ It can’t be done, Ruth. It is impossible. The chil- 
dren and the home need me.” 

“ Oh, that can be managed. Alice will help Dolly 
mornings, and I will run over often. When there’s a 
prodigal in the family he must be attended to, what- 
ever the risk. I only fear you may be too lenient with 
him. He needs a good hard scolding and if I were in 
your place he would get it.” 

The troubled girl shook her head. “ It would do no 
good,” she said. “The prodigal’s disease is in his 
heart. It breaks out, but it begins there. The cure 
will have to begin there too. Scolding will be of 
little use; it was the father’s love that drew the Bible 
prodigal home.” 

Ruth’s arms went about her friend’s neck. She kissed 
her tenderly. “ You will win your prodigal if heart 
can do it,” she whispered, and the first tears Gail had 
shed since learning of her brother’s defection coursed 
down her face now. She drew within the edge of the 
woods and seating herself on the log where she and 
Ted had talked that evening when he decided to leave 
home, gave way to unrestrained weeping. 

“ I feel better now,” she said smiling sadly. “ Ruth, 
we will have to trust Ted to God. I cannot go to him. 
It would cost money to go and to be only a few days 


A CALL TO THE CITY 


213 


with him would do little good and might anger him. 
He would not be pleased to find me acquainted with 
his doings. It would be very different if I were going 
to B to stay; to live beside and care for him.” 

“Why not go and stay? Work is waiting for you 
this very moment. Oh, you needn’t look incredulous. 
I’m not crazy. When papa came to the hotel yesterday 
after his interview with Mr. Horne, I knew right off 
just what ought to be done. I slipped away while papa 
and mamma were talking together and hurried to a 
bookstore where they were in need of a clerk. Emma 
and I had made several purchases there — Raymond is 

only a trolley ride from B , you know — and I had 

become quite friendly with one of the girls. The last 
time I was there I had said laughingly that I rather 
envied her the position she held, always living among 
books. She answered, also joking, that there was no 
reason for envy since they needed another girl. I was 
so afraid the place might be taken, I just hailed a car 
and was there in a jiffy and engaged the position, still 
vacant, for you. Mr. Norton has promised to keep it 
open till Monday. Papa declared that I was a witch 
when I reported what I had done, still he thinks it may 
be the best way of settling the matter, and mamma is 
sure it is. You’re to use our mileage and I’ve a few 
dollars I intended to spend on you at Christmas that 
you shall take as a nest egg. Mamma will see your 
mother and make it right with her.” 

“ It will worry mother if she learns that Ted is 
going wrong,” objected Gail. 

“ But she needn’t know much — only the barest facts ; 
that we have secured a position for you in B be- 

cause papa thought Ted needed some one to look out 


214 


GAIL WESTON 


for him. Mamma can manage it. They pay five 
dollars a week at the bookstore and that will appeal to 
your mother. You’ll be able to send a little money 
home once in a while.” 

“ If I can get a room in the house with Ted and 
keep him from suspecting I am there on his account 
it may do,” said Gail musingly. 

“ I’ll trust you to compass both those ends,” an- 
swered Ruth. You are to have mamma’s brown suit. 
She’s tired of it, if it is almost new, and fortunately, 
her clothes fit you. Then that little brown hat of 
mine — the one with the blue-tipped feather — is at your 
disposal. You must look nice.” 

“ Dress is the last consideration at such a time as 
this,” commented Gail. 

“With you, perhaps, but it will be among the first 
with your brother,” was the quick response. “ He’s 
fastidious, that Ted of yours. A well-dressed young 
lady will receive a warmer welcome than a shabby 
one. I’m glad your hair darkens because that will 
please him too, and his pleasure is our chief concern 
just now.” 

“ You will have to take the early train Monday 
morning,” proceeded Ruth as Gail sat silent. 

“Then I shall have to go to the store at once. 
Dolly’s jacket must be finished to-day. It’s chilly sit- 
ting here.” 

“ I should say it was,” laughed Ruth, jumping up and 
down to warm her numbed limbs. “ I’ve been freezing 
only I was too polite to mention it. Let’s hold hands 
and run awhile to start the circulation.” 

Dolly’s jacket was finished, pressed, and hung up by 


A CALL TO THE CITY 


215 


the middle of the afternoon and Gail put on her wraps 
and started along the Vainfork road to meet Alice on 
her way from school. She was glad Ruth’s return 
would save her sister the long walk twice a day. It 
would give her more time to be with the children if 
she — Gail — had to leave home. As yet she had not 
mentioned the possibility of her going to Dolly. She 
must take counsel with Alice first and learn what her 
mother thought. 

“ You must go to him,” said her sister as Gail fin- 
ished the recital of the sad news. The leading is clear, 
the way open. If any one can help him it will be you. 
How you are trembling ! ” 

“Yes, Giant Despair had me in his clutches for a 
few moments this morning and I’ve not been the same 
since. O Allie, it seemed for a while that everything 
had failed me — that God himself had not kept his 
word.” 

“ Yes, I know,” answered her companion, quick to 
understand and sympathize, “ but he has and we shall 
know it sometime.” 

“ I’ve not been trusting as I should,” confessed Gail. 
“ I have found it almost impossible to think of any- 
thing but Ted this last month since even his letters 
to mother ceased. I’ve tried to cast my burden on the 
Lord, but failed, and because my mind was so much 
occupied I’ve been impatient with the children and 
Dolly. I’ve had to ask Dolly to forgive me almost 
every day and yesterday she told me I needn’t ask her 
again for she just wouldn’t listen to me. ‘ I’m sick and 
tired of all this confessing ’ she said. ‘ For my part I 
can’t see any sense in asking to be forgiven for doing 
what you will do again the next breath.’ I suppose 


2l6 


GAIL WESTON 


she’s right and there is no sense in it, but I have to 
keep my path clear to God. How can I pray while I 
owe a confession to some one? and how can I live 
without prayer ? ” 

“ You poor dear ! ” soothed Alice. “ It must be your 
worn-out nerves. You have taught me to trust and 
now ” 

“ That’s it,” interrupted Gail, “ there’s no excuse for 
it when God has been so good to me. Is it any wonder 
he has not given me what I asked? How could he 
without rewarding my unbelief ? ” 

“ You shall not abuse yourself, Gail. You have been 
believing.” 

“ Believing and worrying ! How can the two go 
together ? ” 

“ I don’t know but God does, and he knows too, that 
your heart wanted to believe whether it did or not. 
I’m sure he doesn’t want’ you to berate yourself. You 
are not your own, you’ve been bought with a price. 
How dare you find fault with your Master’s property ? ” 

Gail placed a loving hand on her sister’s arm. “ How 
wise you are growing in God’s things, Allie,” she said. 
“ That word is of him I know by the way it warms 
my heart.” 

The children had already gathered around the sup- 
per-table when Mrs. Rollins came home. Dolly was in 
a hurry to get through since she was to spend the even- 
ing with a friend. She tied on Pet’s bib, while Gail 
unfastened her mother’s bonnet-strings and unpinned 
her shawl. It was not until her cup of tea was in her 
hand that the woman spoke, but it was in an unusually 
cheerful tone. 


A CALL TO THE CITY 


217 


“ So the squire’s folks have found you a place in the 
city, Abby ? ” she began. “ Mrs. Banscombe says it is 
a fine start and is likely to lead to more. Now that you 
and Ted are both there I hope you’ll manage to find 
some way of getting the rest of us there, for there’s 
precious little chance to get on in a slow, poky village 
like this.” 

Dolly stood, teapot in hand, as if transfixed. “ Abby 
going to the city ? ” she asked. “ Who says so ? I’m 
not going to stay here and do this work alone.” 

“ The squire and Mrs. Banscombe both rode over to 
Mrs. Jones’ this afternoon on purpose to tell me what 
a nice situation they had found for Abby,” answered 
Mrs. Rollins complacently, ignoring the latter part of 
Dolly’s remarks. “ It’s near Ted and he needs some- 
body to look after him ; all boys do, as the squire 6ays. 
They’re all inclined to be a little wild and when there’s 
no one to see to their clothes it stands to reason they 
wear out fast and it takes all they earn to keep them 
going. I only hope you won’t preach to him all the 
time, Abby, and drive him farther than he’d be likely 
to go by himself. A boy’s none the worse for sowing a 
few wild oats. It might have been better for us if 
your father had sown his while a boy and not waited 
till he had a wife and children.” 

Alice glanced at Gail, but Dolly broke out tempes- 
tuously. “ Everbody in this house has a chance ex- 
cept me and I won’t stand it. I want to know, Abby 
Weston, if that’s what Ruth Banscombe came over 
here to tell you this morning and if you’ve been keeping 
it to yourself all day? It’s mean — dirt mean! I couldn’t 
be treated worse if I was — was ” 

“A red Injun,” interpolated Ben sympathetically. 


2l8 


GAIL WESTON 


“ Or Sissy N evens’ new dorg. She ’buses him awful 
cause he ain’t Snip,” contributed Pet. 

“ I’m sorry you feel hurt, Dolly,” said Gail later. 
“ I did not tell you sooner because I wasn’t sure about 
it myself. I didn’t know that I could be spared or 
that mother would let me go. I’ve thought of you alone 
here with the work and I wouldn’t leave you if I could 
help it ” 

“ Likely ! ” snorted Dolly, shaking her sister’s hand 
from her shoulder. “ You’re very sorry, of course, 
but the city needs you — can’t get on without you — so 
that sorry as you are, you’re under obligations to let 
me drag through this drudgery alone.” 

Gail walked to a window and looked out, walked back 
to the sink and her sister. “If the city does not need 
me, Dolly, Ted does,” she said in a low, tremulous 
voice. “ It is for his sake I am leaving you to do this 
work alone.” 

“Don’t tell me Ted’s going wrong!” cried Dolly 
bursting into tears, for her sister’s tone appalled her. 
“You can start to-night if you want to and if you’ll 
only bring him home. I wish I hadn’t been so hateful. 
It’s partly my fault he went away.” 

“ I can’t bring him home, that wouldn’t do, and — 
you mustn’t speak of this, Dolly, to any one, not even 
mother. I hope, oh, I hope he hasn’t gone very wrong 
and I’ll do all I can to save him. I wish you’d help 
Allie and me pray for him.” 

“ I don’t know how,” boo-hooed Dolly, “ I’m not 
worth anything to anybody, but I’ll stick to this old 
kitchen if that’ll do any good. There, Gail Weston, 
see what you’ve made me do ! I’ve gone and spoiled all 
that nice dish-water by crying into it.” 


XVIII 


WHAT TIME I AM AFRAID 



‘HEODORE WESTON sat in his cheerless room 


X his elbows on the table, his miserable face in his 
hands, when a low knock sounded on his door. 

“ Come,” he said drearily, but his listlessness gave 
way to both anger and dismay when he discovered his 
sister standing on the threshold and with a tender 
greeting trembling on her lips. 

“ Where did you come from ? ” were his ungracious 
words of welcome. 

“ Mr. Norton’s bookstore. I work there.” 

“ How long since ? ” 

“ This noon.” 

“ How’d you get the place ? ” 

“ Through the influence of a friend.” 

“ Have you any money ? ” 

“ A little. Enough perhaps to pay my board for a 
week.” 

“ Give it to me.” 

“ What ! and starve ? ” Gail was trying to be merry. 

“I’ll see about that. The room across the hall is 
vacant — the fellow left last night. It’s not bad, it faces 
the street. Mrs. Homer will give you your meals for 
a while anyway. Fork over the money.” 

The girl shivered at the coarse tone, she shrank from 
the hand thrust out with this demand as if it held a 
serpent on its open palm. 


219 


220 


GAIL WESTON 


“’Fraid, are you, or p’raps you don’t want to part 
with the dough ? ” 

“ What do you want of it, Ted? ” 

“Want of it? That’s good. Money’s always in 
demand. I’m in debt.” 

“ Will five dollars pay your debt ? ” 

“ No, but it’ll help — it’ll purchase time. What ails 
you, Gail? Do you want a receipt ? I’ll give it to you.” 
The wretched youth pulled forth ink and pen and some 
paper from the drawer of the table and wrote hastily : 

“ I promise to pay to the order of Abigail Sercross 
Weston five dollars with interest at six per cent, two 
months after date. Theodore Weston, Feb. 4 .” 

“Will that satisfy you?” he asked pushing the paper 
toward her. 

“ You know I don’t want that. I’d give you the money 
if I thought it best.” 

“ You’ll do it whatever you think.” The young man 
arose and crossed to the door as he spoke. As he leaned 
toward her she caught the scent of his breath and sank 
into a chair. The smell of liquor always made her 
faint. “ Oh, Ted, Ted! ” she moaned. 

“ Don’t make a fool of yourself. I’ve been sick and 
the doctor ordered a glass of something stiff.” 

“They’re trying to ruin you,” she cried brokenly. 
“ They’re trying to ruin you, Ted.” 

“ One fellow is, for a fact, curse him ! And he’ll do 
it too, if I don’t look out. Trust French Onglas for 
that.” 

“ Onglas ! ” echoed the girl feebly, recognizing the 
name. “ One of the firm ? ” 

“Not much, only a worthy son of the old party. 
He’s the fellow I owe, fool that I was to go to him with 


WHAT TIME I AM AFRAID 


221 


my difficulty! He’ll never rest now till he has me 
behind iron bars.” 

“ Can’t you get out of his power ? Do you owe him 
much ? ” 

“ Twenty- five dollars.” 

“ Oh, Ted ! ” 

“ Don’t you worry. I’ll manage it if you’ll hand over 
that V.” 

“ Must you take it to him to-night? ” 

“ No, to-morrow’ll do if it’s sure.” 

“ Will you take a cup of tea and go to bed if I give 
you the money, Ted?” 

“ Sure. I’ll do anything — only hand it over.” 

His sister opened her wallet and took out the crisp 
bill. She straightened it out and placed it in his palm 
scarcely knowing whether she did right. Then as he 
sat down and examined it minutely, as if he had never 
beheld a five-dollar bill before, she removed her hat 
and coat and began to pick up the articles scattered 
about the room. She turned down the bed, smoothed the 
sheets, shook up the pillow, then went to the closet 
in search of his nightrobe. She found it on the floor 
with his slippers and brought them both to the table 
where he sat. 

“ Undress and get into bed while I go down and en- 
gage a room, Ted,” she said. “ I’ll bring you up a cup of 
tea.” Then she went out and over the stairs feeling the 
weight of years added to her life since she mounted 
them a few minutes before. 

“You’re Mr. Weston’s sister! Well, I’m not sorry 
you’ve come, for if ever I saw a young chap go down 
hill in a hurry it’s him the last few months. It do 
worry me.” 


222 


GAIL WESTON 


“You think I can have the room?” questioned Gail, 
changing the subject of conversation for the woman’s 
words added gall to her portion. 

“ I shouldn’t wonder if you might, seein’ you’re a 
boarder’s sister.” 

“ And my meals ? Can you give me them, at least 
for a time ? ” 

“Well, perhaps I might.” There was doubt in the 
woman’s voice. 

“ I haven’t the money to pay in advance,” said the 
maiden, coloring, “ but I work at Mr. Norton’s book- 
store and can give you an order on him for my first 
week’s pay.” 

“ Lor’, child, what do I want with your orders ? I 
guess I can trust your face all right. I was only think- 
in’ it was kind’r strange to take in a girl after all 
these years. There’s nothing but gentlemen in the 
house, but then — seein’ you’re his sister — that’s neither 
here nor there.” 

“ Thank you. I’ll try not to be a bother. Will you 
please let me have a cup of tea for my brother? He 
has a headache.” 

“Certain. Riah, Riah, where are you? Just pour 
out a cup of tea for this young lady, an’ come down, 
miss, ’soon’s ever you give it to him, an’ get one for 
yourself and a bite of something to eat.” 

“ Thank you,” said Gail again. 

Ted was in bed and drowsing. She roused him to 
give him his tea and then, finding a small arrangement 
for heating water over the gas-jet and a blackened dip- 
per that had evidently served that purpose, she soon 
had hot water and was bathing his head. Long after 
he was asleep she knelt before the bed unable to think, 


WHAT TIME I AM AFRAID 223 

trying to pray, breathing her misery toward the sky 
where God lived. 

The little unkempt maid, Riah, disturbed her by a 
timid knock. “ Your bed is ready and the gas lighted,” 
she said, “ and missis wants to know shall I bring up a 
cup of tea or will you come down for it ? ” 

“ Thank you. I think Til not go down to-night. I 
do not care for the tea.” 

“ Oh, yes, miss ! I’ll bring it up.” 

The tea grew cold and the plate of food lay untasted 
on the little table where Riah had placed them, as Gail 
watched the weary hours through beside the sleeper. 
When dawn began to break, fearful lest he should wake 
and find her there, she crept to her own room and, 
removing her dress, threw herself across the bed, her 
eyes heavy with unshed tears. 

Ted awoke early and with the sense that something 
unusual had happened. His eyes roved slowly around 
the apartment and rested on the brown jacket and hat. 
What woman had been there? Why should she leave 
her belongings lying about his room? Could it be 
Gail? She never wore anything as pretty as the gar- 
ment hanging over his chair. Who gave him five 
dollars, or had he dreamed that also? He fumbled 
about, thrust his hand beneath his pillow, and drew 
forth the bill that his sister had taken from his hand 
after he slept and deposited there. It was a real bill. 
He lay very still for a while trying to recall what had 
passed the night before. But in vain. His head had 
not stopped aching; he felt dull; he was almost asleep 
again when a tap on his door and a light step beside his 
bed, brought him back to the present. 

Gail had bathed her face and rearranged her hair. 


224 


GAIL WESTON 


As she stood looking toward him, her slight figure 
shown to advantage in the neatly fitting brown dress 
so becoming to one of her complexion — he was struck 
with her appearance. “ What’s become of your 
freckles ? ” he asked roughly, lifting himself on one 
elbow. 

“ I’ve either lost them through carelessness or some 
person has stolen them. Mother says they have a way 
of disappearing in her family.” She was trying to be 

gay. 

“ Small loss. Your hair used to be red.” 

“Isn’t it now?” 

“ Not exactly. It’s not a real magenta. Been dyeing 
it? ” 

“The idea! Do you wish to examine it? You’ll 
find neither dye nor hair-oil.” 

“ Oh, I’m not kicking whatever did it. I’ve got a 
fierce headache.” 

“ Poor boy ! It ached last night too. Let me bathe 
it. Perhaps a cup of tea and a little more sleep ” 

“ Will make me late for the shop and that’s not to be 
thought of,” crossly. “ I was off yesterday — that’ll 
make trouble enough.” 

“ But the tea — you can take the tea ! It’s early yet. 
Let me bathe your face and hands while you lie still.” 

She lighted the gas quickly and placed a dipper of 
water over it, while the youth settled back as if unable 
to exert himself. As the gentle fingers moved over 
his face he sighed and stretched out one hand and 
then the other lazily for her ministrations regarding her 
rather curiously as she washed his neck and pushed 
up his shirt-sleeves to get at his elbows and wrists. 
“ Won’t you feel better if you put on a fresh suit of 


WHAT TIME I AM AFRAID 225 

underclothes ? ” she asked as she rubbed the second 
arm dry. 

“ I haven’t a clean suit to my name,” he answered 
testily, flushing, nevertheless. “A fellow can’t re- 
member everything when he’s as upset as I am. I’ve 
been used to having some one look out for my clothes.” 

“ You need your sister.” Gail was rummaging in 
the bureau drawers as she answered and now brought 
forth an undershirt and a pair of stockings shaking 
them triumphantly. “ So much to begin with,” she said 
brightly. “ I shall have to make a grand overhauling. 
Will you take your tea here or go down to breakfast 
with me ? ” 

“ This is no place to eat ; and besides, Mrs. Homer 
wouldn’t stand for it. I don’t believe she’ll let you stay 
here anyway. Her boarders are all men.” 

“ She has one girl — myself,” smiled Gail, bowing 
impressively. “ I’ve engaged the room opposite this.” 

“Bibbers’?” in surprise. “Well, suppose you get 
into it long enough to let me dress.” 

They ate breakfast together — a poor apology for eat- 
ing on both sides — and started for the business section 
of the city in company, but neither spoke. Ted’s brows 
were knit and his lips compressed. Shame was con- 
suming him. His sister noticed that he evaded her 
glance whenever it was turned toward him, and guess- 
ing his discomfiture, much as she longed to speak loving 
words, to urge him to attend at once to the debt of 
which he had spoken the night before, held her peace. 
Shame kept her still also — shame for his shame. So 
they parted at a street corner. 

Gail blamed herself as she arranged the books on 
her counter because she had not tried to comfort him. 
p 


226 


GAIL WESTON 


She told herself that she would make it up at dinner- 
time, would be very loving and cordial. But Ted did 
not go home to dinner. The afternoon seemed endless 
to the girl, filled as it was with self-accusation. When 
the closing hour at last arrived she hurried on her 
wraps wondering if she would find her brother at the 
supper-table. She had scarcely closed the store door 
behind her when he was at her side. He had been 
waiting for her. 

“ Gail/’ he said humbly, “ Gail, I’ve been tortured all 
day. Did I hold you up like a highwayman last night 
or did I dream it? Can you forgive me, forget it? I 
was not myself, but I swear to you, I am not often in 
such a plight. Try to forget it — forgive me.” 

She placed one hand on his arm. “ Oh, Ted ! ” she 
whispered and could say no more. He took the trem- 
bling little palm in his and drew it through his arm. 
“ Trust me,” he repeated, “ just trust me once more 
and I’ll never fail you again. I cannot get along with- 
out your love, Gail.” 

“You’ll never have to try,” she answered as she 
clung to him. 

They spent the evening together in his room, he all 
devotion and penitence, pouring out the story of 
his wrong-doing, withholding nothing; she amazed, 
shocked, at his disclosures, yet brave and tender ; listen- 
ing, soothing, encouraging. It was only after she was 
alone with the night in the silence of her own room 
that the full measure of his lapse from rectitude became 
real to her. She grew faint as she pondered it, her 
heart too sick for either tears or prayers unless in- 
deed misery is petition. Her brother losing money that 
was not his own at the gaming table, trying to drown 


WHAT TIME I AM AFRAID 227 

remembrance and remorse in intoxicants ! What could 
she do to stay him in his downward career? He had 
promised to do better to be sure, but could he while 
surrounded by the temptations to which he had so 
often succumbed? If only she had money to pay his 
debts, to run away with him, free him from his present 
associations. Alas, she was penniless, powerless! 

“ I will trust and not be afraid.” The golden text of 
a recent Sunday-school lesson came to her in her pain. 
“ I will trust and not be afraid.” 

“ But I am afraid, I am already afraid,” she whis- 
pered. “ Oh, I am so afraid ! ” 

Did a voice speak? Certainly not audibly. There 
was no slightest sound in the room. Yet it came — 
stealing to her heart — that Bible verse learned when 
and where she could not remember : “ What time I am 
afraid I will trust in thee.” 

Oh, the comfort of it! Was not the text prepared 
especially for her — for this hour of her need, this time 
when she was sore afraid? “ What time I am afraid! ” 
— it had come — “ I will trust in thee.” It was here, 
her hour of fear, but with it had come God’s word 
adapted to her need, written for her comforting, given 
to her by the One who loved and sympathized with 
her even in her fear. The wonder of it! The tender 
fellowship it voiced ! Instead of being vexed with her 
heart-sinkings; instead of chiding her for them, bat- 
tling with them, he had adapted his comfort to meet 
her weakness. “What time I am afraid I will trust 
in thee.” 

“ Lord,” cried Gail in the darkness, her spirit 
strangely quickened, her soul filled with conscious joy, 
“ Lord, thou knowest that I love thee, that I trust thee ! 


228 


GAIL WESTON 


I am afraid, oh, I am truly afraid, sin is so strong and 
Ted is so weak, but, because I am afraid, I will trust 
in thee ! ” Then she wept copious tears, gentle, soft- 
falling tears, such as water the seed planted in the 
garden of the Lord. 


XIX 

lost! 

T HE next morning Gail wrote to Squire Banscombe 
asking for the loan of ten dollars, for Ted had 
informed her that French Onglas demanded the whole 
sum due him by the last of the month. 

“ Two weeks from to-day,” Ted had said despond- 
ently, “ my last day of grace ends. I paid him the five 
dollars, he has arranged to take ten more in two weekly 
instalments from my next fortnight’s wages, but I 
shall have to raise another ten somehow.” 

“ I will get it for you if you will promise never to 
drink or gamble again and will try and give yourself 
to the Lord Jesus,” declared Gail. 

“ You may be sure I’ll never touch a glass of liquor 
or a card again,” exclaimed her brother, “ but how can 
I give myself to God in the shape I am in at present ? ” 

“ How can you hope to overcome temptation unless 
you do?” was the response. But Ted shook his head. 

It was impossible now. Some day, perhaps, when he 
was rid of his bad habits, he might. 

“ Did you tell the squire why you wanted this ? ” the 
youth asked anxiously when his sister passed him the 
ten dollars some days later. 

“ Do you think I could ? ” she counter-questioned. ‘ 
Her heart took on hope as the week went by and Ted 
still walked home with her every evening and spent his 
leisure hours in her room where she read him some 
229 


230 


GAIL WESTON 


good book borrowed from her employer for that pur- 
pose. More and more he became like the brother she 
had once known, the brother she had feared was lost 
to her forever. Youth, so quick to despair, so equally 
quick to take on courage, was mighty within her; the 
smile came to her lips, lighted her eyes, she threw her- 
self into her work with ardor and won the commen- 
dation of her employer. He had never had a clerk who 
seemed to love the books she sold as this girl did. She 
grouped them in a peculiar way; made them not only 
attractive, but positively alluring. He was sure he had 
found a treasure. Her first letter home relieved Alice 
and Ruth who shared it together. Surely things could 
not be going as wrong with Ted as they had feared or 
Gail would not write so cheerfully. 

“ Really, all that poor boy needed was his sister,” 
said good Mrs. Homer to Riah. “ She’s put heart into 
him.” 

“ ’Course,” responded the slipshod girl who was 
always lurking about the stairway, or landing before 
Gail’s door, in the hope of getting a smile, “ ’course, 
the rale kind like her can’t help it.” 

At the end of the first week Ted handed his sister 
a dollar. “ Toward paying that X,” he explained. “ I 
wish it was more, but you know Onglas came in for the 
lion’s share.” 

“We’ll soon be rid of him — and forever,” answered 
Gail blithely. “ I’ll send this to mother with one of 
my own. We must encourage her. We’ll begin on 
the squire’s money next week.” 

So Mrs. Rollins received a letter enclosing two dol- 
lars. “ Half of it from Ted, half from myself,” wrote 
Gail. 


lost! 


231 


“ That doesn’t look as if Theodore had gone very 
far wrong,” said the mother with satisfaction, placing 
the bill in her shabby pocketbook. 

Meanwhile Gail began to retrench on her own ex- 
penses. “ I eat so little for breakfast — a spoonful of 
cereal and a slice of bread — it is nonsense to pay so 
much for it. I can cook what I need over the gas- 
jet if you’ll lend me your apparatus, Ted,” she said to 
her brother. 

“ And how much jvill you save by it ? ” he asked 
contemptuously. 

“I’ll tell you at the end of a week,” she replied 
merrily. Though Ted had confessed his sins to his 
sister he had not confessed all of his debts. He had not 
told her he was some weeks behind on his board bill and 
owed both the shoemaker and the tailor. He hoped to 
get rid of them somehow without her knowledge. How, 
was a question that bothered him much the second 
week after Gail’s coming, when Mrs. Homer asked him 
privately if he “ couldn’t spare her a little money soon ” 
and the tailor sent in his account together with a 
threatening letter. His sister was quick to discern 
some worry, but he laughed at her fears. When he 
began to go out again after supper she remonstrated. 

“ We’re busy at the shop,” he evaded, seeing but one 
way out of his dilemma, a way he would not have 
chosen, but that circumstances forced upon him, he 
told himself. Once out of debt he would keep out 
and quit cards and dice forever, but for the present — 
of course Gail would not understand — she must not 
know. “You’ll have to spare me a couple of nights 
a week,” he added. 

Plausible as this excuse seemed the young girl was 


232 


GAIL WESTON 


yet uneasy, and when her brother began to grow hag- 
gard and nervous she begged him to give up this extra 
work. “ But we need money,” he said. “ When will 
you ever get that ten dollars paid ? ” 

“ I’ve saved a dollar and a half toward it already,” 
cried his sister triumphantly. 

“ Yes, saved it out of your own comfort. I can’t 
have you going half-fed. I’ll pay that bill myself.” 

One day he flung her a five-dollar banknote. “ How’s 
that ? ” he asked. 

“ Can you spare so much ? ” 

“ I’ll spare more than that before long,” he boasted, 
and something in his eyes — a feverish heat — troubled 
the girl more than the money relieved her. “ You are 
overdoing,” she said, “you look almost ill. Stay at 
home to-night. Let them get along without you for 
this once. I’ve got such a nice book to read.” 

“ Not to-night. I can’t stop when my luck’s begin- 
ning to come back,” answered Ted. 

“ Luck ! ” echoed his sister. “ I don’t like the word. 
Honest labor isn’t luck.” 

“ How you catch a fellow up ! ” exclaimed the youth 
petulantly. “ Really, Gail, unless one yields to you in 
everything there’s no living with you. Every man 
wants a chance to breathe.” 

“ There’s three more dollars for the squire,” he said 
the next evening. “ How much have you now ? ” 

“Ten dollars exactly,” answered Gail joyfully. 

“ Then send it off at once and have it done with.” 
But Gail could not send it off until after another Satur- 
day night. It would take postage and her last penny was 
gone. On Friday night Ted burst into her room like 
a cyclone. 


lost! 


233 


“ Gail, have you sent that money to the squire yet ? ” 

“ Not yet. I’ve been waiting to afford a stamp.” 

“ Good ! I want it. Only for a few days,” catching 
his sister’s troubled glance. “ I must have it. I’ll give 
it back.” 

“ But, Ted ” 

“ There’s no ‘ but ’ about it, I’ve got to have it, I say, 
and now. I’m to meet a fellow at eight. Hand it over.” 

“You can’t have the two dollars that I put to it,” 
said the girl with spirit. 

“ Who wants them? The eight will do.” 

He caught the money from her hand hastily and 
bounded over the stairs. She put on her wraps and 
followed, but he was out of sight when she reached the 
street. Too restless to go back to her reading or sewing 
she wandered about for a while and presently drifted 
into a church where a prayer meeting was in progress. 
But even the hush of the house of God could not calm 
her spirit. Softly she crept out. She had scarcely 
turned the corner of the next street when she dis- 
covered the one she sought in the distance, a girl be- 
side him. The pair were standing still and Ted seemed 
to be remonstrating with his companion. The indig- 
nant blood rushed to the sister’s face — she had seen 
him before with the same girl, a young thing, pretty in 
a coarse way, and rather gaudily dressed. How could 
he, oh, how could he care for such a person? The 
maiden’s anger changed to heartache as she fled to her 
room and to bed. 

It was late when Ted came in, or early, rather — two 
a. m. Gail was still awake unable to sleep until he was 
housed. She waited now until she thought he must be 
in bed, possibly asleep; then — throwing a wrapper 


234 


GAIL WESTON 


about her form — crept to his door. It was fastened. 
She groped her way back to her bedside and her knees ; 
there the rising sun, streaming through her chamber 
window, found her. 

Ted was always cross these days. The men in the 
office realizing this avoided him. Sam Dyke winked 
knowingly one afternoon at the office-boy, who had just 
dodged, successfully, the ruler flung at his head : “ Our 
gentleman’s a bit off his balance,” he said. “ His nerves 
and his luck have both gone back on him. You mustn’t 
mind trifles.” 

Ted’s head had contracted the troublesome habit of 
aching constantly and the whole day had gone sadly 
wrong. He was glad when the hands of the clock 
marked six and shut his desk with a bang. French 
Onglas came in while he was putting on his coat. 

“ Off, are you ? ” he said carelessly. “ Did my eyes 
deceive me last night, or has my Puritan — he of the 
grandmother and sister, I hope I’ve got the relations 
right — found an houri for himself? A gay one too, by 
my faith.” 

“ What do you mean ? ” 

“ You know what I mean. Own up, Sir Puritan.” 

“ None of your insinuations, Onglas. If you saw me 
with a girl it was with a decent one, and you know it.” 

“ Of course. If a man’s known by the company he 
keeps, why not a girl?” laughed French sarcastically. 

With a muttered oath Ted sprang for his tormentor 
who quietly evaded his approach. “ Have a care, Wes- 
ton. You may go too far some day. I’m not just the 
person to take an attack like that kindly.” 

“ Then mind your own business and keep out of 
mine,” answered the youth hotly. 


lost! 


235 


“ As you mind your business, do you mean, by using 
another man’s signature when it serves your purpose ? ” 
inquired his interlocutor softly. 

The young man flushed. “ It’ll be safe for you to 
keep out of my way,” he muttered as he strode to the 
door. 

Onglas laughed sardonically. “ I’m never in a hurry,” 
he called after the youth significantly. 

In this frame of mind, it is needless to say that 
Theodore Weston was not well pleased when, on turn- 
ing into an uptown street, he discovered Katie Polluck 
making her way toward him. The appearance of his 
sister at almost the same moment, was positive relief. 

“ I can’t stop to chin with you to-night, Katie,” he 
said glancing after Gail, hoping she had not noticed 
the encounter. 

“ Oh, I understand,” cried the girl jealously. “ I’ve 
seen you with her before. She’s not so pretty either.” 

The youth laughed. “ Have you never heard that 
* beauty’s only skin deep,’ and ‘ pretty is what pretty 
does ’ ? ” he queried merrily as he hurried on. But his 
sister was so vexed that she scarcely glanced at him 
to the delight of the little minx across the way who had 
no idea of the relation existing between the two. 

“ She’s huffy ’cause he spoke to me,” she said to her- 
self. “ I’ll give her enough of it before I’m done with 
him. She doesn’t look like such great shakes.” 

It was a quiet walk home. Ted felt the chill of the 
atmosphere, but failed to realize its cause. He was 
“ dog-tired,” he said. “ No going out for him again 
that night.” This last item of news would usually have 
raised the listener’s spirits to a joyful height, but 
seemed to make no impression upon her now. Troubled, 


236 


GAIL WESTON 


nerve-worn, longing for sympathy, almost ready to beg 
for it, the young man followed his sister to her room 
instead of betaking himself to the dining-room. 
“ Won’t you give me a cup of coffee here, Gail ? ” he 
pleaded. “ I don’t feel like supper to-night.” 

She had purchased a little coffee for just such a 
purpose and because she had heard it was often used 
to help those battling with an appetite for strong drink. 
She had prepared him a cup on two other occasions. 
She hastened to make it now, covering her little table 
with a clean towel as she set dishes for two, yet her 
face was grave and preoccupied and she paid no atten- 
tion whatever to the conversation Ted attempted. 

“ What’s the matter with you, Gail ? ” he asked at 
length. “ Am I quite hopeless ? Are you tired of me ? ” 

“ I am disappointed in you,” she answered despond- 
ently. “ I have tried not to be discouraged even when 
you went very wrong, but I hoped you couldn’t do some 
things.” 

“ What now ? ” He set down his cup to question. 

“ Now ? Oh, Ted ! I hoped you valued one kind of a 
girl too much even to tolerate another kind.” She 
covered her face with her hands. 

“Tolerate!” he exclaimed irritably. “We have 
to tolerate all kinds of people.” 

“ And walk with them on the street, talking famil- 
iarly ? ” she questioned looking up. “ I’ve seen you 
several times with the same girl, Ted, and she looks in 
your face as if she liked you.” 

“ She does,” admitted the youth carelessly, “ and 
that’s where the fun comes in. I’d have dropped her 
long ago, but Sam Dyke— a fellow at the store — is 
rather gone on her and it teases him. He introduced 


lost! 


23 7 


her to me at a dance when I first came to B . She’s 

a cheap little thing, not to be mentioned in the same 
breath with some girls I’ve met, but she’s good 
enough ” — noting his sister’s startled glance. “ Good 
enough, I mean, to run around with when you can’t 
get better, but not the kind I think of seriously.” 

“ And does she think in the same way about you ? ” 
gasped Gail. 

“ Oh, no,” easily. “ She thinks I’m the goods for sure.” 

“And — and you let her like you when you feel as 
you do about her? How can you, Ted?” 

“ I’d like to know how I can help it if she happens 
to be a fool. I don’t make her like me,” answered the 
youth. 

“ But you let her.” 

“Let her!” snorted Ted. “I’m not responsible for 
a girl’s notions. I don’t control them.” 

“ You ought to keep out of her way.” 

“That’s rich when she’s always waylaying me. I 
shouldn’t see her once in an age if she wasn’t forever 
hanging around.” 

“ But you ought to let her know you don’t care for 
her.” 

“ But you see I do after a fashion. She’s a nice little 
thing — you’d say so yourself if you knew her — wants 
a fellow to be straight and all that, only she’s rather 
cheap — in her get up, I mean.” Gail’s eyes were very 
uncomfortable. “ You may think I’m a stiff, and per- 
haps I am, but I couldn’t possibly fall in love with a 
girl who’d be guilty of wearing such roses in her hat. 
A fellow wouldn’t mind it if she was too poor to wear 
any, you know; but that kind! Well, they rather give 
her away though she doesn’t know it, poor little thing ! ” 


238 


GAIL WESTON 


“ It’s easier than we think for most of us to give 
ourselves away,” commented Gail severely. “Taste in 
dress is only one way.” 

“ By which you mean just what? Suppose you spit 
it all out while you’re at it, Gail.” 

“ Well, I think” replied his sister slowly, “that when 
a young man’s self-love is so great he can purchase the 
gratification of it by bidding for the admiration of a 
young girl — however flimsy — he certainly gives him- 
self away.” 

The listener’s face flamed hotly; he drummed with 
his fingers on the table. “ You’d spoil all my fun if 
you could,” he said bitterly. “ If a fellow can’t get the 
thing he’d like, the thing he’s made for, you’d bid him 
go without a substitute till doomsday if necessary, and 
doubtless you are of the kind who could do it, but — I 
can’t and won’t.” 

“ Then you’ll never be the kind of man a true woman 
can love, Ted, make up your mind to that; and be sure, 
whatever a ‘ fellow ’ can’t and won’t do, a man can 
and will get the thing he’d like, the thing intended 
for him.” 

The youth cast a glance at her, rose up hastily and 
left the room. A few minutes later she heard him slam 
the front door after him as he went out. 

“ That’s all the good my fault-finding does,” thought 
the girl as she sat disconsolately, head on her hands, 
elbows on the table. “ He was going to stay in and I’ve 
driven him out. Yet if I’m not true to him who will 
be? And if I am this is what comes of it — another 
night of sin. I don’t know how to deal with him.” 

As she sat there drearily the conversation she had 
held with Ruth Banscombe the day the young lady 


LOST ! 


239 


brought her the news of Ted’s defection came back to 
her — the conversation about the prodigal. “ I was right 
then,” she thought. “ It is heart disease that ails him 
and I’ve been doctoring its manifestations instead of 
itself. No wonder he isn’t cured. I’ve been angry with 
him, not sorry for him ! I’ve forgotten his awful need 
in looking at his folly; my indignation has swallowed 
up my love.” She slipped to her knees. 

She was in bed when Ted tapped on her door. 
“ May I come in ? ” he inquired. 

“ Yes.” She sat up in bed and stretched out both 
arms to him as he approached. “ I’ve been cross. I 
need to be forgiven,” she cried. “ I love you so much, 
Ted.” 

He bent his neck to her embrace. His breath was 
pure. She clung to him. “ You’ll not be bothered by 
Katie again,” he said. “ I’ve stopped that nonsense 
all right.” 

“What have you done, Ted?” 

“ Told her to keep away from me. She’s forever 
dogging me of late and I’ve told her I won’t stand for 
it. She’s got to quit it or I’ll know the reason why.” 

“ O Ted,” cried Gail, laughing in spite of herself, 
“ what a dreadful way to talk to a girl.” 

“ You’ve got to put it straight to that kind,” said the 
youth coolly. “ Not that she isn’t all right, mind, for 
she is, but I had to tell her that I had only liked the fun 
there was in going around with her and it was called 
off now. Say, she’s jealous of you, Gail; thinks you’re 
at the bottom of it, which you are for a fact. I didn’t 
let on you were my sister. She wonders what I find 
in you to admire, you’re not so awful handsome, not 
even as good-looking as herself, but perhaps you have 


240 


GAIL WESTON 


money, that counts with one kind of gentleman.” Ted 
laughed and his sister joined with him. 

“ It’s a shame to laugh,” said Gail presently. “ It 
may be no laughing matter to the girl. I hope she 
doesn’t care very much for you, Ted.” 

“ She’ll have to get over it if she does, and she will 
all right. Sam’s around, you know. She has never 
really given him up, only preferred me. Gail, promise 
me never to speak of this matter to any one. I should 
never dare look — look ” — stammering — “ into Ruth Ban- 
scombe’s face again if she had heard of it. She’d see 
the funny side of it too, and never stop guying me about 
it. I’m never sure she isn’t poking fun at me anyway. 
I like her very much, Gail,” flushing. 

“ Then you have a good deal to do if you ever want 
her to like you very much,” answered his sister. “ The 
man who wins Ruth’s love will have to bring her as 
clean a life as she brings him.” 

“ I can never bring anybody a clean life now,” an- 
swered the youth sorrowfully as he stooped to kiss his 
sister good night. “ Gail, Gail, what a lot I have lost ! ” 

He halted, his hand on the door. “ Lost ! That’s a 
dreadful word! When a thing’s lost, it’s lost — gone. 
Why haven’t I thought of that before ? I knew I hadn’t 
gained of late — knew I had fallen behind — but I hoped 
to catch up with myself somehow. I didn’t know I had 
lost anything.” He closed the door softly. 

Gail cried a little after he was gone. The pain in 
her brother’s voice had smitten her heart. She could 
not bear to have him suffer. Yet was there any other 
path to his redemption except that of pain? Must not 
the realization of his past sin bring him anguish? 
Could he be saved without that realization? 


XX 


DRIVEN BY DESPAIR 



OST ! ” The new word that had come into 


J j Ted’s heart and life wrought strangely in the 

days that followed. Sometimes it beckoned him on to 
better things; quite as often it led him to doubt the 
possibility of reform. On it were rung out all the 
changes of fear and despair. But he could not forget 
it — it had come to stay. 

How could that which was lost be regained? What 
folly to dream it possible ! By the red light of his pain 
he viewed the situation : the debts on which he had paid 
so little; the forged note held by French Onglas; the 
certain doom toward which he drifted, its hour to be 
fixed at his enemy’s will — the enemy who was never 
in a hurry.” If he could but once get out of it all — 
have another chance — then he might struggle to reach 
the white life that now looked so alluring. But what 
use to try as it was? If he had the money to pay down 
on that note it is doubtful if French would let him off. 
But Mr. Horne might. If he could go to that gentle- 
man — the money in his hand — and confess his wrong- 
doing might he not be forgiven? Alas, he had not 
the money ! Without it how could he hope for mercy 
anywhere ? 

He could think of but one way of raising the money 
and that was uncertain. Over and over again these 
thoughts presented themselves until he was weary with 


Q 


241 


242 


GAIL WESTON 


thinking; weary with battling the ever-present tempta- 
tion to try to obtain what he needed at the gaming- 
table. He had won eight dollars toward paying the 
squire’s debt and, risking it again, had lost it. No, he 
had not lost it. The word irritated him. It was the 
fruit of gambling and had but reverted to its source. 
He was sure now that if he could but win enough to 
pay the note that bothered him he would never gamble 
again. Never ! But he had no funds to risk. Ah, if 
he only had a few dollars, who knew but his luck might 
change, and he be a free man once more. At last, in 
reckless desperation, he decided to apply to his sister for 
money; he would go mad if he didn’t do something to 
escape the doom that threatened him. This should be 
his final attempt. If it failed he would go to Mr. 
Horne, confess his crime, and take his medicine. 

Gail was expecting him when he knocked on the door. 
She had been longing to go to him this half-hour past, 
but had not dared. There had been that on his face 
that frightened her as he went to his room. She had 
gone to God instead. Her big oil lamp was lighted, 
had been lighted for an hour, in order to take the chill 
from the room. On the table beside it lay her algebra, 
also a story book with which she hoped to lure her 
brother into spending the evening with her. 

But Ted paid no attention whatever to these little 
attempts at comfort when he came into her presence, 
though he threw himself into the old easy-chair she 
drew forward eagerly for his occupancy, with a sigh 
as his chin dropped to his breast. 

“ Are you very tired, dear ? ” Gail inquired gently. 
“ Let me get your slippers. “ I’ve a delightful book for 
this evening.” 


DRIVEN BY DESPAIR 


243 


“ I can’t stop to listen to it,” was the curt reply. 
“ I’m obliged to go out. And, see here, Gail,” plunging 
on as if fearful to pause lest his courage fail, “ I’ve 
got to have money. Got to, mind you, or it’s all up 
with me. I’ve a mind to run away as it is.” 

The sister’s hand was stayed on the book for which 
she had reached, her eyes opened wide. “ What — what 
have you done ? ” she gasped. 

“ Nothing so dreadful that you need stand there star- 
ing at me. I need ten dollars and I’ve got to have it at 
once or I’m done for good and all. It’s a debt of 
honor.” 

“ * A debt of honor ’? ” Gail caught her breath. “ A 
debt of dishonor, you mean,” she cried, her indignation 
getting the better of her pain. “ Honor, indeed ! What 
honor is there in gambling away what isn’t your own, 
what another earns — another who earns less than you 
do. It is dishonor.” 

“ Have your own way. I care precious little what 
you call it if only I get out of this scrape,” was the im- 
patient reply. “ It’s just like a girl to throw a fellow’s 
misfortunes in his face when he comes to her for 
help, though she knows she’s the only friend he has 
in the world and that it’s like taking his life to have 
to come,” an ominous break in the voice. 

Gail’s tone softened. “ But I haven’t ten dollars, 
Ted. I have only eight and I’ve been such a long time 
getting it together. Five of it I still owe to the 
squire and the rest I want to send to mother. She 
blames me for not sending her money and I’ve promised 
her five dollars this month. I’ve had to go without 
shoes to save what I have. Where shall I get more if 
I give you this ? ” 


244 


GAIL WESTON 


“That’s an after consideration,” said Ted. “There’s 
almost two weeks of the month left. I’ll get it for you 
somehow before you need it. Mother’d rather go with- 
out her share than know I had lost my place for the 
want of it. Yes,” as Gail cast him a swift glance, 
“ that’s what it’ll come to if I can’t pay that note 
French Onglas holds. He’ll go to the old man, then 
there’ll be inquiries and I’ll be fired, if I’m not sent to 
jail.” 

Gail scarcely heard him. She had dropped her head 
into her hands and was gazing down at the table as 
if there she hoped to discover some way out of her 
perplexity. She was quiet for so long Ted said irrita- 
bly, “Well, have you gone to sleep?” 

She raised her eyes at this. “ Ted,” she said sol- 
emnly, “do you know that you are spending not only 
all you can earn yourself, but the most of what I earn 
too? This is the third time you have taken every 
penny I had in the world — all I was saving to send 
home.” 

“ It’ll be the last time,” muttered the youth. 

“ You’ve said that before and I believed you,” 
slowly. “ I cannot let you have the eight dollars, Ted.” 

“ Don’t then, you’re not obliged to, though as I 
said, mother would rather I’d have it than have it 
herself if she knew the facts. However, if you want 
me to go to the devil I know a short cut there. I have 
half a dozen bills in my pocket to collect for the firm. 
I guess I can raise enough on them to skip this town 
before to-morrow noon.” 

“You surely wouldn’t do that?” 

“Wouldn’t I, though? Try me and see. When a 
fellow’s cornered he can’t be too particular. It won’t 


DRIVEN BY DESPAIR 


245 


be any worse than I’ve done before. I’ve told you al- 
ready that I’m booked for jail, but it doesn’t seem to 
trouble you. The firm doesn’t owe me a penny, in 
fact I’ve overdrawn a trifle. I gave a check to a fellow 
with the old man’s name attached and when it came 
back French recognized the fraud. So he has me all 
right. It’s no use mincing matters, you can see where 
I’m likely to fetch up if you’re too precious pious to 
help me.” 

“ You don’t mean that you have forged ! ” whispered 
Gail, her voice vibrant with horror. “ O Ted,” as her 
brother did not answer her, “ O Ted, tell me you haven’t 
done that ! ” 

The youth’s face quivered, his lips trembled. “Yes,” 
he answered hoarsely, “ I suppose that’s what you’d 
call it.” 

The girl arose and staggered to the closet door. 
Everything grew dark about her as she groped for the 
little box on the upper shelf where she kept her treas- 
ure. She could no longer walk when it was in her 
hand; a dimness was over her eyes; she fell. Upon 
her knees she drew herself to her brother’s feet and 
thrust the box into his hands while she hid her face 
in her own. 

“ Get up,” he said harshly. “ What’s the matter with 
you? I never saw you act like this before. What ails 
you?” 

She tried to obey him, but could not. As she lifted 
her face he was startled at its whiteness. Suddenly 
all consciousness left her; for the first time in her life 
she had fainted. 

When she came to herself Ted was on the floor be- 
side her, bathing her face, begging her to speak to him, 


246 


GAIL WESTON 


declaring he had killed her. She tried to sit up, to 
laugh at such new ladyish folly as fainting, but noth- 
ing she could do or say comforted her brother or turned 
aside his self-reproach. He kissed her lips, her hands, 
called her the dearest sister in the world, called him- 
self a brute, implored her to forgive him, give him one 
more chance to redeem himself that he might prove to 
her he was not altogether bad. 

He insisted on her lying down and put on his slippers 
as proof that he would not stir from her side that night. 
At her command he brought the box to her bed and to- 
gether they counted out the money, she assuring him 
she could get the other two dollars from her employer 
in the morning. On his part, Ted promised never to 
gamble again, never to drink; to deny himself in every 
way until all she had lent him was paid back. Later 
he read to her and, after she had retired, came to her 
door again to inquire if she was all right and bid her go 
at once to sleep. How she loved him as she tried vainly 
to obey him. He meant to do right, she was sure of 
that. If only he would take her Saviour for his 
keeper. But that was what he would not do. He 
turned aside her every plea in this direction. 

Ted had already left the house when his sister tapped 
at his chamber door the next morning. But he called 
at the store about ten o’clock as he had promised. She 
had the money ready for him and whispered, as she 
placed it in his hand, “ Be sure to get the note, dear. 
I want to destroy it myself.” 

How could he tell her that ten dollars would not 
redeem the note? Perhaps French would let him pay 
that much on it, however, and if he could pay up the 
rest without her knowledge would it not be as well? 


DRIVEN BY DESPAIR 247 

He went away with a sort of shame in his heart, this 
sister of his was so wholly good. 

It took all the strength that Theodore Weston could 
muster to face French Onglas that day. “ What’s 
this ? ” asked that gentleman as the ten dollars was 
deposited on the desk before which he sat. 

“ I — thought, perhaps, you’d let me redeem that note 
you hold. I — I’ll have the rest of it for you before 
long,” stammered Ted, shifting uneasily from one foot 
to the other. 

French laughed sardonically as he swept the bills to 
the floor. “ What do I want with your money ? ” he 
sneered. “I’ll have something better than that some 
day. I’m in no hurry, I can wait.” Then he laughed 
again as he took a gold toothpick from his pocket and 
toyed with it while he watched his victim gather up the 
banknotes. 

“ I’ll go to Mr. Horne with this money and tell him 
the whole story if you don’t take it,” said Ted defiantly. 

“ That would be a most politic move on your part 
and likely to hasten the denouement,” answered his 
tormentor coolly, swinging about in his swivel-chair 
and resuming his pen. 

“ I don’t care if it does,” cried the distracted youth. 
“ Anything is better than this uncertainty.” 

French deigned no reply to this and after waiting a 
moment or two longer, Ted went out, totally subdued 
by his superior’s indifference. He paused before the 
senior partner’s office, his heart beating almost to suf- 
focation. Could he confess his crime? 

“ Is Mr. Horne in ? ” he inquired fearfully of one of 
the clerks. 

“ Went out a half-hour ago,” was the reply, and with 


248 


GAIL WESTON 


a sigh of relief the young man hastened away. Mr. 
Horne looked stern and unbending. Perhaps, after all, 
it was not best to appeal to him. He would take his 
chances awhile longer. 

He gave the ten dollars back to Gail that evening. 
He could not take it to the gaming table as he felt then. 
“ What ! ” she cried in consternation, “ could you not 
get the note ? ” 

“ Ten dollars wouldn’t redeem it,” he replied. “ I 
knew it wouldn’t, but I hated to tell you so. I only 
hoped it would buy French up so that he wouldn’t blab 
to the old man. But he flung it at me.” Ted kept his 
eyes averted. He had caught one glimpse of his sister’s 
face, that was enough. 

“ And what will you do now ? Is the note for much 
more than ten dollars ? How much more ? ” 

“ Its face value is twenty-five dollars.” 

Gail’s face dropped to her hands. “ What can we 
do? ” she questioned in despair. “ If we could raise the 
whole twenty-five dollars do you think he would take 
that, Ted?” 

“ No.” 

“ Not if I went to him, dear.” 

“ That you won’t do, not if I know myself. You shall 
not lower yourself to ask his mercy,” cried her brother. 
“Just to stand in his presence would pollute a pure 
woman.” 

“ He could not harm me. I might try.” 

“And have him sneer at you? Never! I say you 
shall not, Gail. I’ll go to prison first.” 

She shivered. “Perhaps I can get it from the 
squire,” she suggested. 

“You’ll not get it from the squire,” was the fierce 


DRIVEN BY DESPAIR i.49 

reply. “ You haven’t paid the last money you got from 
him.” 

“ I’ve paid half of it.” 

“ Then send him the rest of it to-day and don’t 
bother yourself about me. If I can’t straighten out 
my affairs I can accept the consequences without 
squealing.” 

“ There must be some way,” sighed Gail. “ I’ll keep 
this much toward it anyway ” 

“ You’ll keep out of it altogether,” was the impatient 
response. “ I was a fool to let you know about it. 
Least said soonest mended. You’d better go to bed, 
you didn’t sleep any too well last night. I’m going.” 
The door shut with a slam, and a moment later Gail 
heard him turn his key in his own lock. 

The days that followed were not reassuring. There 
was something ominous to Ted about the manner in 
which French Onglas treated him, passing him day by 
day as if he did not see him — totally ignoring his 
presence. Had the man been trying to drive the youth 
to desperation he could not have taken surer means. 
There were times when Ted felt like running away; 
yes, he even questioned if it would not be better to end 
his life ; anything seemed preferable to this long-drawn- 
out torture. “ I can wait.” These words represented 
the awfulness of the situation. French could wait. 
Ted had no doubt of that. But could he? Should he 
not go mad if something did not end the strain upon 
him? At such times he bitterly lamented that he had 
not staked his sister’s money when he had it in his 
hand. Something kept whispering to him that if he 
had he would be free now, able to go to Mr. Horne — if 
French would not listen to him — with the full amount 


250 


GAIL WESTON 


he had appropriated, asking pardon and mercy. One 
evening, about two weeks after his last visit to his 
tormentor, found him again before the young man’s 
office door knocking for entrance. 

“ Come,” said French, not looking up. He guessed 
who was seeking him, had been expecting him. 

“ I — I’ve come to ask you about that note,” began 
Ted nervously. 

“That note! What note? Oh, that crook affair?” 
The speaker lifted his eyes long enough to let a baleful 
gleam fall on his victim. 

“ How much will you take for it ? ” 

Onglas raised his head and fixed his eyes — narrowed 
to two yellow threads — on the questioner’s face. 
“ Don’t know that I care to part with it at any price,” 
he said slowly. “ Don’t believe you could redeem it if 
I did.” 

“But if I could,” eagerly, “how much would you 
want and keep still ? ” 

“ Treble its face plus the interest.” 

An exclamation of dismay fell from Ted’s pale lips. 
He turned away. 

“Wait a moment,” said the cool voice. “You don’t 
deserve mercy, but I’ve a mind to give you another 
chance. Have you been down to Johnny’s lately?” 
“ Johnny’s ” was a gambling haunt to which French 
had introduced this youth. 

“ Not very lately,” stammered Ted, his fingers trifling 
nervously with his hat. 

“ Had any luck for a while back ? ” 

“Very little. I’ve about decided to cut it out — stop 
for good.” 

“A mighty poor time for such a decision it strikes 


DRIVEN BY DESPAIR 


251 

me,” insinuated the tempter. “ Better take another try. 
Your luck’s sure to turn sooner or later. I’ll tell you 
what I’ll do. If you’ll meet me at Johnny’s to-night 
I’ll double anything you stake and give you the note for 
its face value if you win. Yes, I’ll throw a third off,” 
as his victim hesitated, “ and let you burn the thing 
before my eyes.” What demon was leading French 
Onglas to make this offer? 

“The real note? No substitute?” 

“ Do you take me for a forger like yourself ? ” 

Ted winced. “ Don’t call me that,” he cried. 

“ I only call you what you are ; take that into account 
before you refuse my offer. I’m sorry for you if jrou 
are a fool — I’m willing to help you out. I’m going 
more than half-way now, but, seeing I’m in it. I’ll go a 
step further. If you don’t want to play me, why play 
some other fellow — anybody you choose — and I’ll give 
you the note — minus a third of its face value and with- 
out interest — if you win. There, that’s the best I can 
do for you ; take it or let it alone and risk your chances 
before judge and jury.” Onglas took up his pen and 
bent over his desk. 

Ted’s face paled and flushed — flushed and paled. “I 
haven’t a dollar to stake,” he admitted. 

“ Then get one. If you haven’t sand enough to raise 
a dollar or two you’re not worth saving — I wash my 
hands of you. I wish you’d come to a decision too, and 
be quick about it. I’ve a lot here yet to do and want to 
get through.” 

Still Ted hesitated. The hand he placed on the table 
to steady himself trembled. It looked like his last 
chance — but Gail ! Ruth ! 

Onglas uttered an oath. “ What ails you ? ” he 


252 


GAIL WESTON 


demanded. “ You’re spoiling my copy. You make me 
sick. Can’t you take up with my offer or say you won’t, 
like a man? Get out of this, will you? I’ve no more 
time to waste on you.” 

Ted withdrew his hand from the table. “I’ll take 
you up,” he said, a tremor in his voice, “ but I’d rather 
play some one else.” 

“ As you please about that. It’s eight-thirty at 
Johnny’s, then. I’ll meet you there.” 

Gail lay waiting for Ted’s step that night until the 
night had passed. Daylight began to creep in at her 
window before she fell asleep. When she peeped into 
his room at rising his bed lay undisturbed; he had not 
been at home all night. With a heavy heart she went 
about her usual preparations for the breakfast, she 
could not eat when it was ready. Going to her closet 
for some article of dress her hand came in contact with 
the little box where she kept her money. Some one 
had been tampering with it. It had been drawn from 
its usual place behind the books. Opening it hastily the 
sudden fear that had smitten her heart was justified: 
she had been robbed. Where had he gone? Had he 
run away? Weak and dazed she was yet obliged to 
don hat and coat and hasten to the store. It was 
getting late. 

No brother appeared at dinner-time; he was not at 
his place of business when she called for him on her 
way home late that afternoon. Another long, sleepless 
night passed; again his bed was undisturbed. But all 
his clothes hung in his closet, his dress-suit case stood 
in its place ; the bureau drawers had not been emptied. 
In an agony of fear and dread, not knowing what to 
do, whither to turn, the maiden lingered as long as time 


DRIVEN BY DESPAIR 


253 


.would permit about the big wholesale store hoping 
against hope to catch a glimpse of the face she longed 
to behold. She was turning away when Sam Dyke 
came through the open door. Her anxiety overcame 
her timidity and she asked if she might speak with 
Mr. Weston a moment. 

“ Weston hasn’t come yet. He was out yesterday too. 
I’m afraid he’s laid up,” answered the young man good- 
naturedly. “ Who shall I say called ? ” 

“ It won’t matter,” Gail faltered and turned away 
faint and sick. 

Another noon hour and still Ted did not appear. His 
sister spent it in wandering about the city. She asked 
a half-hour’s leave of absence from the store that after- 
noon to continue her quest, all to no purpose. She was 
turning the corner near the Horne and Onglas Com- 
pany’s block when some one touched her arm and Katie 
Polluck stood before her. “ I guess I know who you’re 
looking for and where to find him,” she said. 

“ Find him ! Do you mean my brother, Theodore 
Weston ? ” cried Gail. “ Oh, tell me where he is, Katie, 
if you know,” imploringly. 

“ Katie.” The girl smiled well-pleased that she was 
known. “ Your brother ! Is he your brother — and he 
trying to pass you off on me for his girl? I met Sam 
Dyke this morning and he said Ted hadn’t been at the 
store these two days and I could guess the reason why.” 

Gail’s eyes asked the next question and the girl 
answered them. “ You see my stepbrother’s a bad one 
an’ so’s his father — gamblin’ all the time — an’ I heard 
George tellin’ dad about your brother this mornin’. 
He lost all his money t’other night an’ had a row; 
they’d a handed him over to the p’lice if French Onglas 


254 


GAIL WESTON 


hadn’t stopped ’em. ’Twarn’t because French likes your 
brother either — he hates him like poison — but he had 
some reason or other. I kin show you where they was 
playin’ if you want to know. I shouldn’t wonder if he 
was there now.” 

“ If you will be so kind,” said Gail gently. 

“ Kind ! I guess it wouldn’t be hard to be kind to 
you, but it’s quite a walk if you’re in a hurry.” 

“ I have ten minutes yet.” 

“ Then we’ll have to be quick. Down this way, miss.” 

Katie chatted all the way, but Gail did not hear a 
word until she halted before the place they sought. 
“ They was at Johnny’s fust,” she whispered then, “ but 
some of ’em came here. He was with ’em. Ain’t it a 
pretty buildin’ ? ” 

The maiden drew as near to the glittering windows 
as she dared. The electric lights were burning already 
for the day was dull and the afternoon well spent. The 
shades were let down over the lower part of the 
windows, and she could see nothing. 

“ They gamble upstairs. That’s a wine parlor be- 
low,” volunteered Katie. “Ted’s a bad boy, ain’t he?” 

“ I must see him. Do you think they will let me in ? ” 

“ I know they won’t, and think how mad he’d be if 
they did an’ you follered him,” cautioned the girl. 

“ I did not think of that,” sighed Gail. “ If I should 
knock and ask for him ” 

“ They’d lie an’ say he wasn’t there,” answered Katie ; 
“ an’ it wouldn’t mend matters about his being mad at 
you. I’d go myself — it’s better me than you — but they’d 
oney poke fun an’ shut the door in my face; besides I 
shouldn’t wonder if your time was up.” 

It was. Gail glanced at the clock across the street 



YfcAN2' /' 

; de 


;4fggffMffS» 


“ The maiden drew as near to the glittering 
windoivs as she dared.” 


Page 254 




DRIVEN BY DESPAIR 255 

and started nervously toward her place of labor. 
“ What can we do, Katie ? ” she asked pathetically. 

“ Hain’t you got a gentleman friend or enny one you 
can git to go after him ? ” questioned the girl, moved 
by her companion’s distress. 

“ I don’t know a gentleman in the city except my 
employer. I cannot ask him.” 

“ So you can’t,” sympathetically. “ Well, I’ll tell 
you what — Sam shall get him. I’ll make him; oney 
you’ll have to wait till after seven to-night ; Sam never 
gets to our house before seven.” 

Three more hours! How could she wait? She 
pressed Katie’s hand at the store door. “ Thank you 
for what you’ve tried to do for me,” she whispered, 
“ and, O Katie, pray ; God can do what we can’t.” 

“ If he can then he ought’r,” answered Katie. 

“ I love her,” the girl said to herself as she went up 
the street. “ She’s a lady an’ treats me ’s if I was one 
too. I’d like to help her an’ Ted too, if he is stuck on 
himself and treated me shabby. It’s lucky our shop 
shut down to-day. If that man at the mission says true 
the Lord does lots for him. I should think he’d do as 
much for her ; I’d do more. But if he doesn’t then Sam 
shall go for Ted, though I’m not overly anxious he 
should visit such places. Ted was all right until French 
Onglas took him to ’em.” 

Meanwhile Gail was going about her work with a 
preoccupied face, praying with an inward fervor that 
exhausted her beyond the power of words to describe. 
And this was her prayer, sent up over and over again: 
“ O Lord, I have failed, I have failed. I can do no 
more. O send some one else, some one who can do for 
him what I cannot.” 


XXI 


BURNING THE MANUSCRIPT 


ORACE FRANKSIN had been spending a few 



n days in a distant part of the State and was re- 
turning home on this afternoon of Gail’s need. As he 
sat studying the landscape the conductor bawled out, 
“ Next station’s B ,” and the young man straight- 

ened up suddenly. Why not stop over and take a peep 
at Ted Weston? No sooner thought than he con- 
sulted his railway guide. Yes, he could go on at mid- 
night. What a pity he hadn’t Tom along. Anyway 
he’d see Ted and take his ward news of his brother at 
first hand. 

He did not have Ted’s address, but he knew the firm 
he served, had met the junior partner and his son — 
French Onglas — at a summer resort a year or two ago. 
He was soon within the warehouse inquiring for his 
friend. 

“ Mr. Weston’s not in at present/' answered Dyke 
who was the first of the employees Horace met. 

“ I think I’ll wait for him if you expect him soon,” 
answered the visitor cheerily, and Dyke went on his 
way muttering: “Queer that all his friends should be 
turning up just at this time. Wonder if this spark has 
anything to do with that girl who wanted him this 
morning? It’s not my business to tell any more than 
I’m asked. If Ted’s on a spree they’ll have to find it 
out without my help.” 


256 


BURNING THE MANUSCRIPT 25 7 

Horace grew somewhat impatient as he hung about 
the big store. There were no customers, and no clerks 
within sight to question; evening would set in early 
this lowering day; what if he should miss Ted after 
all? He must find somebody who could tell him where 
his friend put up. With this end in view he made his 
way to the lower entrance and met French Onglas 
upon the threshold. The gentleman was most cordial. 
Franksin’s wealth and his uncle’s fame were known to 
him; he was rather flattered at first thinking the call 
was meant for himself; he was soon undeceived. 

“ Weston? He hasn’t been at the store to-day. Hard 
on us too, since my father’s away at present and he’s 
needed. Ted’s not much to depend on, but he’s better 
than nothing in a tight place.” French took a malicious 
pleasure in saying this. He was seldom talkative, but 
he resented the evident friendship of this wealthy 
young gentleman for the youth he despised. 

His listener’s face flushed. " I never listen to the 
disparagement of a friend,” he said, in what Rob 
Thompson designated “ Hod’s uppish tone.” “We were 

students together and roommates at X and a 

better fellow than Theodore Weston does not live.” 

“ At X , hey ? Then perhaps there’s some truth 

in his talk of a grandfather and better days. I imagine 
different circumstances may bring out different sides 
of a man’s character. He’s smart enough and we 
thought a lot of him at first, but he has been down on 
his luck of late and has grown saucy and independent. 
He drinks a little and gambles some if he doesn’t do 
worse,” mysteriously. 

Horace looked the indignation he felt. “ You’re mis- 
taken, Onglas,” he said. 

R 


258 


GAIL WESTON 


“Am I?” dryly. “Well, perhaps. I’m no saint 
myself nor have I any particular aversion to a glass of 
wine or a turn at the billiard table. I didn’t think any 
worse of him when I found he was inclined that way; 
but I’m not the fellow to take too many chances or 
risk all I have in any deal. He is. He has overdrawn 
his account and — well, he’ll bear watching. I don’t 
want to be too hard on him, but I keep my eyes open. 
Some things look ugly.” 

Horace Franksin’s lips came together. He took a 
hasty turn across the floor. “ Where does he room ? ” 
he asked with a sudden determination to remain in the 
city overnight if necessary and see his friend. 

“ If you’re thinking you can help him I want to give 
you fair warning that you’re tackling a tough job,” 
commented French, ignoring the young man’s question, 
overjoyed that he had succeeded in worrying him. 
“ I’ve tried my hand at it and failed and that sister of 
his fairly haunts this establishment lest he escape her 
espionage. I guess she has done her best and failed 
also. It’s about time for her to show up again. I 
want to get off before she comes. No knowing what 
that sort might do.” 

“ His sister ! Gail, do you mean ? ” 

“ Gale or thunder-cloud, either term will fit her,” an- 
swered Onglas carelessly. ‘ The fact is, Ted’s been go- 
ing it pretty fast of late, cutting a mighty wide swath. 
He hasn’t been here for two days, to be truthful, and I 
expect he’s missing at his boarding-house too, or she 
wouldn’t be shadowing this place as she is. I saw her 
hanging around at noon and she looked desperate, as 
if ready to charge his misdoings on any one she could 
find and take toll for them too.” 


BURNING THE MANUSCRIPT 259 

“Will she be here again?” asked his companion 
eagerly. “ I want to meet her.” 

“ That’s dead easy,” smiled French, casting a curious 
glance at the elegantly dressed youth before him. 
“ You have only to stay where you are for a while. 
She’s shabby and homely, a distressing combination, 
but easily identified. She will pass the window slowly, 
almost pause at the door. Then if her brother does 
not appear, she will repeat the process. He was in the 
habit one while of meeting her at the corner of the 
block. Since he has stopped it she has begun this sort of 
thing. She’s one of your tiresome, persistent girls 
and uncommonly uncomfortable, half-timid, wholly de- 
termined you know. I’m expecting her to bear down 
on me some of these days and charge me with all her 
brother’s shortcomings. Such an encounter would be 
embarrassing, as a man can’t deal with a girl exactly 
as he would with her brother. There’s something about 
her — her eyes perhaps, they’re rather fine, or her dis- 
gusting seriousness — that warns me that ‘ discretion 
is the better part of valor ’ in her case.” He laughed 
disagreeably. “Ah, talk of angels — I’m blest if she’s 
not crossing the street this minute. Didn’t I tell you 
she’d be here ? ” But Onglas had lost his auditor — 
Horace had seized his hat and darted out. 

“ Miss Weston,” he said, as he stepped to the young 
lady’s side, “ I am Horace Franksin, your brother Ted’s 
friend.” 

What a look she cast him. Surprise, awe, relief, all 
were in it. Her low cry was one of mingled joy and 
pain. “ You have been with him ? ” she gasped. 

“ No. I did not find him at the store.” 

“ God sent you.” Her low voice thrilled him. “ My 


26 o 


GAIL WESTON 


faith failed — I did not expect you — but you have come 
— Ted will let you help him.” 

“ Suppose we walk on.” Horace wished to get 
beyond the range of French Onglas’ vision. “Ted is 
my friend,” he went on as they moved down the street ; 
“ the dearest boy that ever lived. I will do anything I 
can for him — for you.” 

Oh, what a grateful yet heart-broken glance she sent 
him! The young man’s soul melted with sympathy as 
he met it. 

“ I have been all alone, I have not known what to 
do,” she whispered, “ but you can save him,” a sort of 
beseeching in her voice as if she craved his assurance 
that he could. “ God would not have sent you to me 
if you could not.” 

“ I can,” he said, bound to comfort her, “ and what- 
ever comes now, Miss Gail, there are two of us to bear 
it — two of us to fight it.” 

Tears shone in the eyes lifted to his. “You are just 
what I thought you must be,” she said simply. “ Ted 
will have to let you help him.” 

“ Do you know where he is ? ” 

“ I can guess. He — he had a bill — a note — to redeem. 
He gave it to some one who won money from him 
which he could not pay.” The shamed voice sank to 
a whisper. “ He — he may not have been able to resist 
the temptation to try what he calls ‘ his luck ’ again.” 

The whole miserable story was revealed to the list- 
ener in these halting words. He put it with what 
French had hinted and was silent as they hastened on. 

His guide stopped presently and pointed to a bril- 
liantly lighted hall farther on. “If he is not there I do 
not know where he is,” she faltered. “ I cannot go in 


BURNING THE MANUSCRIPT 26l 

to look for him. They would not let me in and he 
would be angry if they did. But you can go — they will 
not turn you away.” She hesitated and her companion 
noticed that she shook as if chilled to the bone. 

“ If you find him you must not let him know that I 
brought you here,” she went on. “ It will shame him 
to meet you as he is. It will be better — oh, you must 
never let him know I told you about his affairs — that I 
met you at all ! ” 

“ I understand. It shall be a secret between us. No- 
body will ever know of our meeting to-night through 
me.” 

“ Thank you. If — if you find him in there will you 
please shake your handkerchief from the window that 
I may know. It will relieve me if I am sure you have 
found him.” 

“ I will let you know at once,” answered Horace. 
“ If he is not there we will seek him elsewhere. Never 
fear. We shall find him. By the way, I shall want 
your address.” 

She gave it to him and watched until his form dis- 
appeared through the opposite doorway. She shud- 
dered then as she realized into what she had sent him. 
“ O God, save him from harm,” she prayed fervently. 
“ Let not his kindness be his undoing.” 

It could not have been many minutes later that she 
heard a step approaching and, turning, beheld the one 
for whom she prayed. “ He is there,” he said, and 
something in his tone revealed to his listener the plight 
in which he had found his friend. 

“ Go home and get warm and eat something,” he 
added. “ For Ted’s sake you and I must keep up 
strength and courage.” He put out his hand, a great 


262 


GAIL WESTON 


pity for the maiden flooding his heart. “ Will you 
make a compact with me, Miss Gail ? ” 

She placed her hand in his unhesitatingly. “ That’s 
well,” said the young man cheerily, “ and it means that 
you are to eat a good supper and get some rest. Have 
Ted’s room ready for him. I will see that he has a 
lunch and will bring him home within an hour. I give 
you my word that I will not leave him to-night.” So 
they parted. 

Gail’s big lamp was lighting Ted’s chamber when 
he and Horace reached it; her best spread was on his 
bed. She was watching from her window when they 
approached the house and saw that Horace unlocked 
the front door and helped his friend over the outer 
steps. She heard their voices presently as they entered 
the hall; the one full and cheery, the other low and 
thick; and too weary to get her shoes unlaced, con- 
scious of a relaxation — a sudden giving way in every 
limb — she crept into bed, unable — in the weakness that 
had seized her — even to kneel to thank God for this 
true friend he had sent her. But the tears that wet her 
pillow were not altogether sad and her Lord knew. 

She arose the next morning as one arises from a long 
illness — weak, consciously weak, yet consciously glad — 
a sense of returning health pervading all her being. 
She ate her meager breakfast with her door ajar that 
she might catch every sound from the opposite apart- 
ment. Ted’s laugh was music in her ears. What could 
his companion be saying to amuse him so. It seemed to 
her a long, long time since she had heard her brother 
laugh. 

Presently a door opened, feet traversed the hall, 
descended the stairs. 


BURNING THE MANUSCRIPT 263 

“ It seems too good to be true that this is really you, 
Hod,” she heard Ted say, and then the front door 
slammed. From her window she watched the pair 
swing up the street arm in arm, so free of limb, so 
light of step, so gay of spirit that she could scarcely 
believe her eyes. 

“ It is what Ted has needed, a boy friend, true and 
strong,” she said to herself, tears shining in her eyes 
as she stood before the little mirror fastening her collar. 
“ Lord, can you not give him such a friend until he 
learns to make you his Friend? as he surely must some 
day.” 

Horace had a long talk with Ted that morning and 
one later after an interview with Mr. Horne. 

“ I’ve got the note,” he said on this later occasion. 
“ I wish you could have seen how French Onglas 
looked when Mr. Horne asked him for it. ‘ Why have 
you kept this secret he demanded?’ and French 
mumbled something about saving him from ex- 
posure. ‘ That was a matter for the members of this 
firm to decide,’ the gentleman replied. ‘ It is possible 
the young man might have preferred our justice to 
your mercy,’ sarcastically. ‘ I advise you to keep still 
about this transaction. It does not do you credit.’ 
There,” ended Horace, throwing the note to his friend, 
“ burn it up. I want to see the end of it ! ” 

“ So do I,” hesitated Ted, “ but — you’ll be surprised, 
Hod, to learn that my sister is here with me — Gail. 
She suspected I was going wrong and followed me to 

B . I haven’t spoken of her before because I’m not 

ready for you to meet her yet.” Ted was too embar- 
rassed to note his companion’s rising color. “ She’s a 
good sister,” he went on, “no man ever had a better, 


264 


GAIL WESTOM 


but she hasn’t had half a chance in life and I haven’t 
looked after her as I ought. It does take fine feathers to 
make some fine birds,” with a half-laugh. Ted flushed as 
he caught his friend’s eye, though he did not understand 
the meaning of his glance. “ I was foolish to let her 
know anything about this affair,” he continued in a 
constrained voice, “ but I did and it has worried her. 
She’ll feel better if she destroys this thing herself.” 

“ Then let her do so by all means,” said Horace 
heartily. “ By the by, Ted, you’d better get through 
with Horne and Onglas soon. The senior partner as 
much as said it would be best, though he’s willing to 
give you a chance to look around.” 

“Of course I’ll have to go, but where? That’s the 
question,” answered Ted gloomily. 

“ I have a plan that I think’ll work,” declared Hor- 
ace cheerfully. “ Uncle Burns wrote me that his sec- 
retary’s health had failed and he had asked for a six 
months’ leave of absence. How would that job suit 
you ? ” 

“And you’d ask it for me? Trust me like that?” 
cried Ted. “ But would your uncle care for my serv- 
ices after what has happened ? ” 

“ I see no reason for telling him about this affair. 
It’s over — a back number — it will never be repeated.” 

Ted sprang from his chair to clasp his chum’s hand. 
“ You make me hope I can be a man again,” he said 
huskily. 

“ You can. There isn’t anything I’d hesitate to stake 
on that. One brief chapter of your life is finished. 
We’ll burn the manuscript.” 

Ted was more than half ashamed of the tears in his 
eyes and turned to the window to hide them. His 


BURNING THE MANUSCRIPT 265 

voice betrayed their presence, however. “ Hod, you’re 
the only person in the world that trusts me; I’ll never 
forget it. Gail doesn’t, though she has tried to hard 
enough. She has an idea that I’ll never amount to 
anything unless I get religion.” There was a sort of 
shame in the youth’s voice as he said this. “ She seems 
to think a fellow needs something besides himself to 
depend upon.” 

“ Perhaps he does.” 

“ A boost from a friend like you once in a while ? 
Yes; he does. But this being dependent all the time — 
well, I like to think I can manage myself if I try. To 

admit I can’t, to say I must — must ” 

“ Depend on God for strength,” supplied Horace, 
“you feel would be humiliating? Is that it, Ted? 
Now, as a matter of fact, are not you and I dependent 
on him for the next breath we draw ? ” 

“ I suppose we are,” was the reluctant reply. 

“And yet we’re not ashamed of that, are we, or 
ashamed to acknowledge it ? If we are willing to be de- 
pendent on him for physical strength, why not for moral 
strength ? ” asked Horace, led along to unexpected con- 
clusions by his own reasoning. “ Isn’t it rather shabby 
in a man anyway to be unwilling to acknowledge 
dependence when it is a fact ? ” 

“ I suppose it is,” admitted Ted, rather surprised at 
his friend’s position, “ but I never thought of the matter 
in that light before.” 

“Nor I,” confessed Horace. “I’ve thought little 
enough of my Father in heaven at any time. Yet I am 
sure that if my earthly father had lived I should feel it 
only joy to take from his hands — to look to him for the 
supply of every need.” 


266 


GAIL WESTON 


There was silence for a few moments then Horace 
spoke again, though in quite a different strain. “ I 
have told Mr. Horne about my expectation of finding 
you something to do in another city, and he is willing 
you should remain at the store for a while and go from 
it finally as if at your own option and because you had 
found a larger opportunity elsewhere. That will save 
appearances.” 

“ You have considered me in all your arrange- 
ments ! ” 

“ Why not, since the arrangements are all for you ? 
I shall have to leave to-night, old fellow, but you will 
hear from me soon. Keep a stiff upper lip and a brave 
heart for your sister’s sake as well as your own.” 

“And to prove I deserve such a friend as you,” 
responded Ted warmly. “ Horace, I’m bad — soiled 
through and through, yet I’ve longed for a white life 
more than I can tell this last month. I only waked 
up to what I had lost and the possibility of losing all 
that was most worth while a few weeks ago. Since 
then I’ve tasted hell.” The low voice broke. 

For answer his friend wrung his hand. “ It’s past,” 
he said. “ Forget it.” 

Gail was rearranging her books, putting loving 
touches on her favorites as she returned them to their 
places, when some one approached her end of the store. 
Looking up she saw a tall, graceful, carefully dressed 
young man coming directly toward her. It was not 
until he smiled that she recognized her companion of 
yesterday. 

“ Mr. Franksin,” she said, extending her hand. 

Horace did not seem conscious of the embarrassment 
she showed, but as he looked at her he recalled a 


BURNING THE MANUSCRIPT 267 

phrase French Onglas had dropped when describing 
her, “ Half shy, wholly determined ” ; he recalled too, 
that gentleman’s remarks about her shabbiness and 
plainness. While he questioned her about her books 
he gravely considered both items. Really her dress 
was so modest and well-fitting, the collar she wore 
so spotless, and the ribbon so fresh he would scarcely 
have recognized the shabbiness had he not been fore- 
warned of its presence. And her looks? She might 
not be what Rob Thompson designated a “howling 
beauty,” but she was certainly very pleasing, and her 
face so lighted as she expatiated on the charms of some 
of the volumes she handled that he had no heart to 
call her “plain.” 

“ I must go away to-night,” he said, as she wrapped 
up the book he purchased. “ So I came to have another 
word with you and to say good-by. I wish I could 
tell you how good and precious Tom is and how 
grateful I am to you for sparing him to me. As for 
Ted” — he cast her a swift glance — “you must not 
worry about him any longer. I’ve been talking to him 
about assisting my uncle who is in need of a secre- 
tary. The position will just suit your brother; he is 
a scholar, Miss Gail. I hope that after he is with Uncle 
Burns awhile the way may open for him to follow 
me to college. I think my plan just the thing for him. 
Can you get on without him ? ” 

“ I shall feel so safe for him if he is with you,” she 
answered eagerly, “ however much I miss him.” 

“ Thank you ; but he will not be with me — not at 
once. He will be with my uncle— traveling, studying, 
thinking. He has been discouraged, out of his true 
place. In seeking for something to satisfy himself — 


268 


GAIL WESTON 


ease his unrest — he got into mischief. It will be wise 
for him to make a change.” 

“ I do not know how to thank you,” answered Gail 
timidly. “ You have brought me new life. I — I was 
in despair — I could go no further. All I could do was 
to cry to God for help. He sent you.” 

“ I am glad he did,” answered Horace ; then after 
a moment’s hesitation he added, “ I am not a Christian, 
Miss Gail.” 

The gray eyes lifted to his face spoke her surprise. 
“ Are you sure ? ” she asked earnestly. “ O Mr. 
Franksin, I want you to be your best.” 

“ And is that the only way one can be his best — by 
being a Christian ? ” he asked. 

“ By being Christ’s,” she corrected. “ Yes, that is 
the only way; the Bible says so.” There was no 
hesitation, no doubt in her voice. 

“ Thank you,” he said, “ and good-by.” He gave her 
his hand, bowed gravely, took up the book for which 
he had paid and turned away, leaving the girl puzzled 
and a little fearful lest she had pained him. She had 
not; she had but brought him light — the first possible 
explanation of the unsatisfactoriness of the life he had 
tried so earnestly to live for others. It had not been 
fruitless, yet it had seemed well-nigh so to himself, 
it had so fallen below what he had dreamed — desired. 
Was this the explanation of its failure? 

“ I want you to be your best.” That was what he 
wanted too — to be his best. 

“ By being Christ’s. Yes, that is the only way.” 

He pondered her words as he steamed away from 
the city where she lay sleeping, a peace in her heart 
too deep for words — a peace that had come through his 


BURNING THE MANUSCRIPT 


269 


coming, that had reached its climax when, after a 
quiet talk with Ted that evening, she had seen the 
forged note turn to ashes. 

“ One brief chapter of my life is finished. We have 
burned the manuscript,” said Ted as he watched the 
flame die out for lack of fuel — slightly changing the 
words Horace had used to him earlier in the day. 
“ Now for a fresh page ! ” 


XXII 


TRUSTING IN ALMIGHTY GOD 

ED had one short half-hour with Horace at Y- 



1 before continuing his journey to Chicago, where 
he was to meet Prof. Burns Hildreth. “ I owe you 
more than I can tell or pay,” he said with emotion as 
he clasped his friend’s hand. 

“ Not more than I would owe you had the tables 
been turned,” was the instant retort; “and I’m here to 
ask a favor of you.” 

“ As many as you please. They’re all granted,” an- 
swered Ted, his arm flung over his comrade’s shoulder. 

“ Thank you. Here’s the first.” Horace produced a 
card and passed it to the youth. It was a temperance 
pledge. “We’ll sign it together,” he volunteered, “our 
names side by side, and sign two, that each of us may 
have one.” 

“ Why should you sign a temperance pledge when 
you don’t need to?” asked Ted, his cheeks flushing 
deeply. 

“ Who can prove I don’t need to ? ” counter-ques- 
tioned his friend. “ Who seemed less to need such a 
pledge than you did a year ago? A temptation that 
has moved you is apt to move any other man. I’ve 

been circulating pledges ever since I left you at B . 

I’ve two dozen signatures already, and I’ve only begun. 
Uncle Burns drinks wine occasionally. I want you 
fortified before you reach him.” 


270 


TRUSTING IN ALMIGHTY GOD 2JI 

Ted’s eyes were on the card. “ How do you know 
I’ll keep this if I do sign it?” he asked. 

“ How do I know that you are my friend, Theodore 
Weston? ” 

“ You persist in having faith in me? ” 

“ Abundance of it. That’s right,” as Ted set down 
his name. “ Now sign this other one while I place 
my name under yours. We’re in this thing together, 
‘ sink or swim, survive or perish,’ ” laughing. “ You 
pocket one of these and I’ll take the other. I’ve another 
favor to ask you.” 

“Out with it.” 

“ I want your hand — only your hand this time — that 
you’ll never touch cards or dice again as long as you 
live, either for money or for fun. Is it a bargain? 
I'm ready on my part.” 

“ That shuts you out of a great deal of pleasure, 
Hod. It .won’t harm you to have an occasional game 
of whist.” 

“What harms you harms me. What’s a game of 
whist beside the well-being of a friend? Come, I’m 
ready,” extending his palm. “ I’ll stake my life on 
your integrity when once you give me your hand.” 

“And what if I don’t?” 

" You mustn’t ask me that ; I’m not willing to con- 
sider such a proposition ; there’s too much at stake.” 
The earnestness of his chum’s voice and manner 
touched Ted. 

“ I — I’m not sure so of myself as I was once, Hod,” 
he said presently, trying to control his voice. 

“What of that? Self-assurance doesn’t count for 
much. Did you read that pledge through? Did you 
notice how it began? ‘Trusting in Almighty God.’ 


272 


GAIL WESTON 


That’s not self-assurance; it’s something better. My 
trust is there for myself, for you. Trusting in the 
strength of Almighty God, not in your own strength, 
Ted, will you give me your hand to shun all gambling 
and everything connected with gambling as long as 
you live ? ” 

Horace was bending toward his friend with an ear- 
nest, questioning glance. The youth hesitated but a 
moment; the next he placed his hand in the one out- 
stretched to him. “ Trusting in Almighty God,” said 
Horace solemnly as he clasped it. 

“ Ted,” he went on a moment later, “ there’s another 
thing.” 

“Another?” echoed Ted. 

“Yes; yet hardly another since it is the sum and 
substance of what has gone before. I’ve not only given 
my word to abstain from all that intoxicates and from 
every form of gambling, * Trusting in Almighty God,’ 
but I’ve given myself to him out and out, forever and 
ever.” 

“ Given yourself — out and out,” stammered the lis- 
tener at a loss for words, astonished beyond measure 
by what was taking place. “You mean — you don’t 
mean ” 

“ Yes, I do. I mean that I am not competent to 
take care of myself, and have handed myself over to 
the One who is. One too, who is willing to accept the 
charge. I don’t know much about the business — am not 
sure I’m taking the orthodox way — but I’m in earnest. 
I’ve capitulated, hoisted the white flag, laid down arms, 
surrendered, and have begun to drill with the other 
crowd. Come with me, Ted.” 

“ You don’t know what you’re asking — you forget 


TRUSTING IN ALMIGHTY GOD 


273 


what I am.” Ted’s breath came fast. He was strangely 
moved; there was contagion in his companion’s enthu- 
siasm. 

“ I’ve weighed everything. I’m in my right mind, 
Ted.” 

“ Don’t press me, Hod.” There was a catch in the 
youth’s voice. 

“ I must. It’s the only hope there is for those con- 
sciously weak, like you and me ; the only chance for any 
man who wants to do a full day’s work in the world, 
who would be his best,” using Gail’s word. “ Ted, 
we’ve got to count. ‘Trusting in Almighty God,’ will 
you take your place beside your old friend in the ranks 
of Christ’s army ? ” 

Ted’s chin sank to his coat collar; his lips came 
together. Horace waited, hand out. “ It’s ‘ trusting 
in Almighty God,’ not yourself,” he whispered. 

“ You don’t know what I am,” came the low, tremb- 
ling reply. 

“ I don’t care; neither does the Lord. If he can have 
you he can make what he likes of you. That’s up 
to him. This is your part.” 

Theodore Weston’s hand trembled outward toward 
his friend’s palm. “‘Trusting in Almighty God,”’ 
cried that friend exultantly as he clasped it. 

At the station Horace passed his friend a small pack- 
age. “A pocket Bible,” he smiled. “I have one just 
like it; so has Rob. When you read in it remember 
you’re one of a trio at the same business. Your train’s 
ready; you’ll have to rush. ‘Trusting in Almighty 
God,’ Ted.” 

On the train, alone, Theodore Weston came to him- 
self. What had he done? Had he been dreaming? 
s 


274 


GAIL WESTON 


His eyes fell to his lap. The little packet containing 
the Bible lay there. He felt in his pocket and drew 
out a card. “ Trusting in Almighty God.” The big 
letters stared him in the face. “ Trusting in Almighty 

God, I promise to abstain ” the words blurred 

before his eyes. He winked and looked again. 

“ Theodore Weston.” 

“ Horace Franksin.” 

His eyes went dim once more. Could he be a man? 
Lead the white life that such as Gail and Ruth would 
approve? He placed the card carefully in an inner 
pocket, near his heart, his lips murmuring uncon- 
sciously, “Trusting in Almighty God.” 

The very next day, returning from work, Gail found 
a letter addressed in an unfamiliar hand awaiting her 
on the hall table. Opening it before she laid aside hat 
or cloak, she read these words: 

Dear Miss Weston: ‘‘Trusting in Almighty God,” Ted 
and I have pledged ourselves for life against the use of 
all intoxicants and gambling, and have given ourselves 
to your Saviour. Perhaps you will like to keep the en- 
closed card. Ted does not know of our meeting or that I 
am sending you this. Sincerely, 

Horace Franksin. 

Such few and simple words to cause such ecstasy 
in a human breast. On her knees, the pledge-card 
turned up toward heaven, the maiden poured out her 
thanks to her Maker, asking that untold blessings might 
fall on the instrument of so much good. 

“If Ted will only be true,” she thought, rising from 
her knees and remembering tremblingly the broken 
promises of the past months. 


TRUSTING IN ALMIGHTY GOD 


275 


With a sigh she reread the brief letter. “ Trusting in 
Almighty God.” The words that meant so much to the 
two young men took hold of her also at this second 
reading. “ Trusting in Almighty God.” That became 
her anchor as it was theirs. 


XXIII 


MY MISS AND MY LADY 


HE days that followed Ted’s departure were 



l lonely ones to his sister, in spite of her joy 
in the good that had befallen him. A quick step on 
the stairs set all her pulses throbbing; she turned to 
the room he had occupied more than once, eager to 
share some experience with him before she realized 
that he was no longer there. Having become accus- 
tomed to lying awake at night, she could not immedi- 
ately succeed in wooing slumber, but spent the long 
hours in prayer and in wondering how the battle pros- 
pered that she was sure he must be waging between 
inclination and duty. At such times she stayed her 
heart upon Horace Franksin’s watchword: “Trusting 
in Almighty God.” 

One day when in a very lonesome mood she met 
Katie Polluck on the street, their first meeting since 
the afternoon this girl had guided her to the gambling 
den. 

“ I’ve been sick,” Katie said ; “ awful sick. I was 
took the day after I saw you. It came near bein’ 
difthera. I sent Sam after Ted, but he couldn’t find 
him; the fellers told him some sport had carried Ted off. 
I’ve been wantin’ to see you bad ever sence. Was it 
— was it as you prayed? Did God send some one along 
to help ? ” 

“Yes, Katie; God sent an old friend of my brother 
to us.” 


276 


MY MISS AND MY LADY 277 

“Well, he’d ought’r. If he hears the prayers of 
such as him at the mission he ought’r hear yours. 
An’ Ted’s gone, Sam says.” 

“ He has a position in another city,” answered Gail 
shrinking from the girl’s rough questioning. “Are 
you quite well again, Katie?” 

“ ’Most. I’m glad to be out, an’ I’m glad if Ted’s 
doin’ better — for your sake mor’n his. I like you.” 

“ Thank you,” said Gail gently. “ Do you go my 
way ? ” 

“ I can if you want me. You look kind’r homesick.” 

“ I guess I’m brother-sick,” laughed Gail. “ Katie, 
I have never thanked you for your kindness to me.” 

“ That’s all right. Don’t mention it ; it’s not worth it.” 

“ It comforted me to have somebody care. That’s 
much. I wish I could show you how I appreciate it. 
I wonder ” — a sudden thought presenting itself — “ if 
you wouldn’t like to join my Sunday-school class at the 
mission.” 

“ I don’t like the mission real well.” 

“ I’m sorry, for I like it very much. I have a nice 
class there — girls of about your age.” 

“ I wonder you don’t take a class in some church, 
miss. I’d rather, if I was you. I was in a class at the 
mission once, but I left — I didn’t get on with the 
teacher. She was from the normal school at Rogen 
Hill ” — naming a suburb of B — “ and was stuck up. 
I couldn’t bear her.” 

“Try me for a little while,” coaxed Gail. “You 
can leave if you get tired of the class or find me ‘ stuck 
up,’ ” smiling. “ Promise to go with me next Sunday, 
at least. We can go to church first. Shall I call for 
you, or will you call for me ? ” 


278 


GAIL WESTON 


“ I’ll call for you/’ laughed Katie, well pleased. “ I 
guess I can stafid it if you can.” 

Gail walked back to the house more cheerful because 
of this encounter, wondering why she had not tried 
to reach this girl before, laying plans now for her 
capture and redemption. But all through her thinking, 
unconsciously, one sentence Katie had dropped kept 
repeating itself in her memory, at last attracted her 
attention, “ From the normal school at Rogen Hill.” 

She started, a glad light in her eyes. A normal 
school so near ! Why could not Alice attend it another 
year? She could earn enough to support two. Why 
hadn’t she thought of it before? The answer to this 
latter question was not far to find. Ted’s danger had 
absorbed her whole life, banished the consideration 
of every other need. She sat down and wrote to her 
sister. 

The answer to her letter was entirely satisfactory. 
Miss Hart — the principal of the high school Alice at- 
tended, who was deeply interested in the young girl — 
assured her that the Rogen Hill school was one of the 
best of its kind. “ She thinks I can get enough prep- 
aration in one year to obtain a school and thus earn 
money to take a further course,” wrote Alice. “ I’ve 
been doing special work under Miss Hart’s supervision 
for several months now, and intend to keep on all 

summer. Can’t you get me something to do at B ? 

If the girls at the store take vacations, won’t Mr. 
Norton need extra help ? ” 

“Your sister?” Mr. Norton looked interested when 
Gail presented her plea. “If she has your love of 
books and the same faculty of interesting others in 
them it will pay me to make a place for her. Fitting 


MY MISS AND MY LADY 279 

for a teacher, you say? That sounds well. Yes, there 
will be summer vacancies. She can come as soon as 
she pleases.” 

Hurrying to her room to write the good news to 
Alice, Gail nearly stumbled over Riah, who was on 
her knees at the stairs’ head wrestling with a bundle 
of papers and trash which she had dropped. 

“ They fell from me arms,” the girl explained. “ The 
attic’s left an’ I’m gettin’ it fixed for the next one, 
miss.” 

“ The attic ! Is it a big room ? May I see it ? ” 
cried Gail, a new idea taking possession of her. It 
might be better fitted to the modest housekeeping she 
was contemplating than the room she now occupied. 
It would certainly be more secluded, for there was only 
one attic connected with the front stairs. Think of 
having a pair of stairs to herself and Alice! 

The room was large, even if the ceiling did slope 
on one side; but it was the great closet under the 
eaves, almost as big as the room itself, that decided 
Gail and took her downstairs immediately to consult 
Mrs. Homer. That closet would hold trunks and wood 
and an oil stove upon which she and Alice could pre- 
pare their meals. She was soon pouring all her plans 
into the ears of the kind-hearted boarding-house 
mistress. 

“ Of course, child, it’s jest the thing, an’ I have a 
two-burner oil stove you can have as well as not. 
Riah’ll clean it an’ take it up for you. An’ so your 
sister’s cornin’ ? Well, I’m glad. If she’s like you she’ll 
be welcome. I remember when I was fust away from 
home an’ how I felt when my sister came to live in 
the same city. An’ she’s going to be a school-teacher? 


28 o 


GAIL WESTON 


My niece, Mary Ann Merrill — my brother Luther’s girl 
— teaches school. An’ she went to Rogen Hill too! 
I had her come to me to finish off, seein’ there wasn’t 
a chance where Luther lived. It’ll be a’most like 
havin’ Mary Ann back. What is your sister’s name, 
miss ? ” 

“ Alice — Alice Rollins. She is my half-sister.” 

“ Land sakes ! So your mother married twict ? I 
wonder women will do it after findin’ out what men 
air ! Your father must ’a been a good man or she 
wouldn’t have. Well, Alice is a pretty name; an’ you 
can buy your bread o’ me. You’ll want somethin’ be- 
sides baker’s trash, an’ it won’t kill me to bake an 
extra loaf when I’m at it. I’m glad she’s cornin’; 
it’ll be comp’ny for you. I kin see you miss your 
brother.” 

The two girls were so glad to see each other when 
they met at the station that neither had eyes for any 
one else. It would have surprised them had they been 
able to peep over the shoulder of a stalwart young man 
who sat writing in Ted’s room that evening — a young 
man who had hired the apartment that very afternoon. 
He wrote: 

Dear Mamma: Yours truly is safely at his journey’s 
end and in a hurry to write you while he is still a gen- 
tleman of leisure, lest to-morrow’s duties make a letter 
impossible and you begin to imagine yourself forgotten. 
I have one souvenir of my travels which I enclose for 
your inspection — the unconscious model being a young 
lady who sat in front of me on the train and had the good 
fortune to possess a head and neck like my mother’s. I 
only wonder at her lack of taste in adorning them with 
rings of gold instead of brown. I made believe they were 
brown. 

Now for a startling disclosure ! That same lady and 
her sister, who met her at the station — at least I hope she 


MY MISS AND MY LADY 281 

is her sister — inhabit this very house ! How’s that for a 
surprise? I found it out when I peeped through my door 
as I heard footsteps go by a moment ago. To make as- 
surance doubly sure, I craned my neck after them as they 
went down the street. If that isn’t a coincidence, what 
is it? It must be something. 

I’ve called on Mr. Horne already. He was very cordial, 
asking after father and yourself. Now prepare for another 
surprise. He tells me Ted Weston was the last man who 
filled the position I am to occupy this summer. If that 
isn’t coincidence number two, it must be something number 
two. 

The writer did not tell his mother, as he might 
have done, that his employer looked rather troubled 
when his new clerk cried: “Ted Weston! What a 
pity I didn’t get here before he left.” 

“ Then you know him ? ” he questioned dryly. 

“ Know him ! I should say so. We roomed together 
at X . 

Mr. Horne’s next remark seemed a trifle irrelevant. 
“ Robert, you are the son of a good man. You will 
want to keep yourself straight.” 

“ Straight ! ” echoed the youth. “ Mr. Horne, I am 
my mother’s son; she will expect me to do more than 
that.” 

Robert Thompson had no idea that he was occupying 
Ted’s old room, or that the girls in whom he was 
naturally interested were his friend’s sisters. 

I’m too busy to be over-curious about my girl neighbors 
(he wrote his mother a week after his coming), but I’m 
obliged to interest myself in the persons and things about 
me — when I’m not at the office — to keep from being home- 
sick. Strange, isn’t it, that I, who never dreamed of such 
a thing as homesickness when at college, yet have re- 
peated temptations to such folly here ? It must be because 
it is summer-time. I am used to going without you when 
the snow blows, but when the grass grows I’ve always 


GAIL WESTON 


282 

had you, and the grass grows here — a little, where it gets 
a chance. 

The girl with a neck like yours bears the name of Alice. 
I’ve learned so much, though I’ve never been introduced, 
since the young ladies do not appear at table. They evi- 
dently do their own housekeeping in the room over mine. 
I’ve been tempted to ask questions about them, but being 
my mother’s son, have forborne, except on one occasion, 
when I went so far as to hint at my desire to Riah, the 
queer little servant-maid, as she made my bed. 

“ Can you tell me who those young ladies are? ” I asked, 
pointing to the pair as they went down the street side by 
side. 

“ ’Course,” she answered with a grand air. “ That’s my 
Miss an’ her sister.” “ My Miss ” must be the gray-eyed 
one, for I’ve caught Riah openly worshiping her on the 
landing more than once. It’s the other one — my young 
lady of the train — that has the Christian name of Alice. 
I’ve heard her sister call her. But the name of “ My 
Miss ” eludes me. My lady of the train has so soft a voice 
that I cannot catch it, though I have heard her speak it 
as they went past my door. It’s something uncommon, 
and sounds like “ Ale,” which is clearly impossible. They 
sing together sometimes, and one of them has a glorious 
voice. I am sure it’s “My Miss.” It belongs with her 
beautiful gray eyes. They are beautiful, mamma, though 
I imagine some people might not call her so. Yet she has 
something superior about her — something that attracts your 
son much more than does the pink and white and gold 
of her sister. That dear little mouse sings a very soft 
contralto, and is a charming morsel, taking it all in all; 
but her sister makes me wonder what’s behind her face 
and how she came to have that sort of deep calm in her 
eyes. She smiles too; I’ve caught her at it with Riah, 
and really earned one all for myself when I picked up her 
handkerchief for her one day. Don’t be alarmed, mamma. 
I’m not in love with her; that is, not in the orthodox boy 
and girl fashion; but if I get into trouble while here I 
shall run to her. 

The summer was broken near its close by a week 
at Greenville for Gail with Tom. She declined to 
make the visit at first, but Tom bought two tickets 
and ordered her to meet him at Boston; there seemed 


MY MISS AND MY LADY 


283 


nothing to do after that but go. He grumbled when 
he got her home because she insisted on doing the 
housework and letting Dolly off for a week. “ Great 
vacation you’ll have,” he complained. 

Ruth called to see her friend the evening of her ar- 
rival, and the remembrance of that night lay like a 
jewel in Gail’s heart in the months that followed. 

“ What have you been doing with yourself ? ” Ruth 
cried the first thing. “ There’s a shine on you, a posi- 
tive shine, and such a peaceful shine ! What have you 
been doing to make yourself beautiful ? ” 

“ Not a thing,” Gail said yvith a laugh. “ I’ve been 
too busy with my daily work and the little duties I’ve 
found lying about to find time to beautify myself had 
I known how.” 

“ And Ted? ” anxiously. “ How is he? ” 

“ Glorious ! O Ruth, it is wonderful. You ought 
to read his letters, and he writes every week now. I 
must show you his last.” 

“ Did he go very far wrong, Gail ? ” The sweet 
voice sank to a whisper. 

“ Not so far, dear, but that God could reach and 
forgive him,” was the tender reply. “ He was a prodi- 
gal, but his Father’s love drew him home and every 
week there’s fresh evidence that he’s his Father’s son,” 
triumphant gladness in the girlish voice, as Ruth clung 
to her sobbing softly. 

“ My Miss ” is off somewhere and poor mousie is alone 
(wrote Rob to his mother). She looked so lonely Sunday 
that I felt sorry I couldn’t join her on her walk to church. 
Little need. She met a sort of tenement-house belle at the 
corner. I should have been alarmed then, only I had seen 
her and “ My Miss ” with the girl before. Some one “ My 
Miss ” has picked up to mother. She can’t help mothering 


284 


GAIL WESTON 


folks — that’s her mission in life. I’ve seen her try it on 
the boarding-house mistress, who is three times her age 
and anything but childlike. I am in despair of ever learn- 
ing her name, for everybody calls her “ Miss ” — the belle 
of the tenement and Mrs. Homer, as well as Riah. “ Trust 
her to me, miss,” I heard Mrs. Homer say the day the 
young lady went away. “ I’ll see she hain’t lonesum.’ She 
must have been speaking of Alice. 

You ask if these girls are the only persons I see or 
think about. No, indeed; but rest assured no thought of 
them will ever soil a young man’s heart. It’s because they 
are uncommon — by which I mean better than common — that 
I am impressed by them. 

It was the second evening after Gail’s return and 
supper-time when she remarked to Alice, “ I haven’t 
seen a sign of that nice boy that had Ted’s room. Has 
he gone away ? ” 

“ That nice boy ! ” echoed her sister. “ Do you mean 
the snub-nosed young man who looked as if he was 
always poking fun at you ? ” 

“ Snub-nosed ! ” It was Gail’s turn to echo. “ I did 
not notice his nose, but he had the merriest and the best 
face in the world.” 

“ Merry enough, I guess,” responded Alice. “ I only 
glanced his way once, but that was sufficient to dis- 
close his snub and the funny little freckles that dec- 
orated it. I was sure he was laughing at me then — 
me or somebody else — and I never ventured to look 
his way again. A man carried his trunk off the morn- 
ing of the day you came back. I heard him say 
‘ good-by ’ to Mrs. Homer, and he laughed when he 
said it. He’s one of the kind that’s always laughing.” 


“ You spent your summer at B and working for 

Horne & Onglas! Why, that’s where Ted Weston 
worked for a while.” 


MY MISS AND MY LADY 285 

“ So Mr. Horne informed me.” 

The speakers were Horace Franksin and Robert 

Thompson, both newly arrived at W to begin their 

second year at college, and “ swapping experiences,” 
to quote Rob, as they unpacked their trunks. 

“ Where did you board ? ” This from Horace. 

“ On Chestnut Street, with a Mrs. Homer.” 

“What! Not in an old yellow house with a big, 
funny-looking front door ? ” 

“ The very same.” 

Horace dropped into a chair. “ Then you must have 
met Ted’s sister.” 

“ Ted’s sister ! ” Rob lifted his head to survey his 
companion with a rather excited air. 

“ Yes, Miss Gail.” 

“ My Miss,” cried Rob, “ as I’m a sinner. Kick me, 
Hod,” jumping over his trunk, that he might be in a 
position to have his request granted. “ Please kick 
me for the double and twisted blockhead that I am. 
Gail ! That’s what my lady of the train called her, 
and I, poor idiot, ringing the changes on ‘ Ale,’ ‘ Pale,’ 
etc. She has gray eyes and a smile, and sings like 
an angel. There’s two of them.” 

“ Two of them ? I guess you’re twisted now. There 
can’t be two of Gail Weston.” 

“No, one’s Alice; but they are both Ted’s sisters. 
Imagine it ! I occupied the same house with those 
girls for eight weeks and was too devoid of sense to 
surmise who they were or say a word to either of 
them.” 

“ Hard luck ! ” sympathized Horace. “ The acquaint- 
ance of one of them, at least, was worth cultivating.” 

“ Do you suppose that’s news ? I’ve heard her sing. 


286 


GAIL WESTON 


Heard them sing, to be correct. They've been my di- 
version all summer. Their goings-out and comings- 
in have formed the staple of my letters to mamma until 
she wrote to inquire if I saw or thought of anything 
else. I’ve pegged away at the office and watched those 
girls, wishing all the time that I knew them well enough 
to dare offer to take a walk with one or both of 
them. Think of the privileges that might have been 
mine had I but asked their names? Ted’s sisters! 
What a miss. Alice is something of a beauty, Hod.” 
“Is she? Her sister is something better than that.” 
“ I believe you. But where in the world did you meet 
her, or are you but echoing the opinion of the kid ? ” 
“ I am echoing no one ; I’m stating my own opinion,” 
answered Horace with dignity. “ But,” he added with 
mounting color, “ I ought not to have stated it. I 
promised her not to speak of our meeting.” 

“Promised her not to speak of your meeting?” 
Rob laughed, then drew his brows together dramatic- 
ally. “ Ah, friend, dear friend,” he struck an atti- 
tude. “ What mystery lies here concealed ? Open your 
heart freely to the one who loves you, but avoid — avoid, 
as you value your peace of mind, clandestine meetings, 
though it be with an angel — an angel with gray eyes ! ” 
“Nonsense! There’s no mystery; at least none that 
I can’t solve,” said Horace. “ I met her accidentally 

when I stoped over at B to see Ted. She feared 

he wouldn’t be pleased if he knew of our meeting, so I 
promised her not to speak of it to any one. And this 
is how I keep my word. Rob, if you ever tell Ted 
Weston what I’ve just told you, then — — ” 

“ Then you’ll know I’m a changeling and not my 
mother’s son,” interrupted Rob gaily. 


MY MISS AND MY LADY 287 

“ Do you know, Hod/’ he continued after a pause, 
during which he shook out a coat and hung it over 
a chair, “ Ted’s something of a ninny on some lines. 
The way he wouldn’t talk of his sister the last time 
I saw him made me tired. Think of a fellow falling 
heir to a sister like that girl I’ve watched all summer 
and keeping mum about it. I fancy he has an idea that 
she ought to be and isn’t a beauty — has failed some- 
how to measure up to what he had a right to expect. 
He might think my mother below par in that respect 
if he saw her, but it wouldn’t be healthy for him to 
air his opinion in my presence. Yet he might be right. 
I’m in no position to learn the facts. I’ve lived too 
close to my mother all my life to have had a chance 
for inspection, and I’m not hankering after one. It’s 
your cold-blooded man who picks flaws in his own 
flesh and blood. Perhaps there’s some excuse for Ted 
since he hasn’t always had his sister, but it rather 
sickened me when he said his half-sisters were quite 
pretty — Gail was plain. It really seemed as if he was 
trying to prepare me for some great disappointment.” 

Rob’s companion flushed hotly. “ There’s a great 
difference of opinion as to what constitutes beauty,” he 
said somewhat loftily. Rob was on his knees before his 
trunk, but he got up hastily and made a profound bow. 

“ I do reverence to the ability that excelling in every 
line of study shines conspicuous in all,” he said with 
mock gravity. “ Will you give me your candid opin- 
ion, professor, on my own personal appearance? Have 
I yet attained or may I ever hope to attain to what 
you would say ‘ constitutes beauty ’ ? ” 

“ It; makes no difference whether you do or not. 
You’ve got something better,” laughed Horace. 


XXIV 


CALLED HOME 


HE school year passed quickly to the two girls 



l at B . They lived a quiet life, Gail — true 

to her old habit — studying at night to keep up with her 
sister; Alice trying her hand at teaching Riah to read. 
Her success, as she wrote to Ruth, was not such as to 
puff her up in view of her future career, but it cer- 
tainly puffed up the poor little maid. She was unmis- 
takably vain of her new accomplishment, and seized 
every opportunity of displaying the same. Her mis- 
tress was her usual victim, and listened patiently as 
she spelled her way through paragraph after paragraph 
of the “ Daily News/’ though the good woman con- 
fessed to Gail privately that she “ couldn’t make head 
nor tail of it, an’ didn’t b’lieve Riah did; but,” she 
added enthusiastically, “ it do beat all to hear her at it.” 

Gail’s Sunday-school class prospered, Katie Polluck 
among the rest. Some of the girls entered the Chris- 
tian life, but Katie was not one of these. She was 
very regular in her attendance and listened to the 
teaching. She had changed in many ways, noticeably 
in her dress and deportment, both of which had become 
quieter, more refined. This was due to her intercourse 
with the sisters, Gail still holding the first place in her 
heart, though she openly worshiped at the shrine of 
Alice’s modest beauty. Sam Dyke accompanied her to 
the mission occasionally and to church. 


288 


CALLED HOME 


289 


“ He’s my ‘ steady ’ now,” she confided to Gail ; and 
at another time, “ Sam says I’m gettin’ to be such a 
fine lady he’s afraid he’ll lose me one of these days; 
but ” — with a conscious laugh — “ I guess he’s good 
enough for me. He hasn’t touched a drop this six 
months, an’ he never was fond of it. He’s stopped 
his smokin’ too, sence I told him the best sort hadn’t 
no use for tobacco. Oh, I’m tryin’ to do my duty 
by him.”* 

“ I’m proud of you,” said Gail warmly, “ and of Mr. 
Dyke too. He’s a fine young man — strong and clean. 
He only lacks one thing. That’s what you lack too 
Katie.” 

“ I know it.” The girl flushed. “ Don’t you imagine 
I’m not thinkin’ about it, for I am, an’ so’s Sam. I’m 
tryin’ it a little too, inside. I want to see how it 
works. It seems such an awful thing to tie up suddent 
to bein’ a whole Christian that I told Sam he an’ me’d 
better try it a little at a time,” 

Gail smiled. “ Is that the way you mean to marry 
Mr. Dyke by and by — a little at a time, Katie ? ” 

“ My ! I wish I could,” was the unexpected reply. 
“ Then I’d be sure of myself before I was tied too fast. 
I’m gettin’ ready to be married, though. One spell I 
thought I liked your brother better’n Sam, but I guess 
I didn’t. Little by little he’s worked it till he’s my 
4 steady,’ an’ p’raps,” lowering her voice reverently, 
“ it’ll be that way with Him up there,” her hand toward 
the sky. 

Letters from Ted became more and more assuring : 

I wish you were where you could see what a new boy 
I am. It is hard for me to believe that it was I who 
caused you such heartache. I think I must have been 

T 


GAIL WESTON 


290 


insane, Gail. I know I have no desire now for many of 
those things I then felt so alluring. Of course my sur- 
roundings are different, but they are not without tempta- 
tion, and I am not very sure of myself yet. 

Professor Hildreth is very kind to me, and it is delightful 
to work with such a man, yet he has been in the habit 
of taking an occasional glass of wine, or so he says. I 
have seen him do it only once. We had been taking a 
long tramp, and as we entered the dining-room he walked 
to the sideboard and filled two glasses with wine, drinking 
off one and pushing the other toward me. “ It will refresh 
you,” he said. I felt myself turn pale. Oh, how I wanted 
the stuff ; the smell of it seemed almost more than I could 
bear. I had to hold on to Hod’s motto then. I pulled my 
pledge-card from my pocket and handed it to the gentleman 
without a word. 

“ So Horace has roped you in ? ” he said smiling. 

I felt hot all over. I couldn’t bear to have him laughing 
at Horace. “ Not before it was time some one roped me 
in somewhere for safety,” I cried, and then I blurted out 
the whole miserable story of that year with Horne and 
Onglas. He listened, standing with his eyes dropped to the 
carpet, as Horace would have done, sparing me his glance. 
When I was through he held out his hand. “Thank you 
for your confidence,” he said. “ Few military men can 
boast of a braver deed. You have suffered from a sort 
of madness, my boy. It has passed, but it will not be 
safe for you ever to trifle with intoxicants. Will you let 
me see your pledge again ? ” 

I passed it to him, and to my surprise he took out his 
pen and placed his name below Hod’s. “ I don’t need the 
stuff,” he said, returning the card, “and I can’t afford to 
run the risk of doing again what I have done to-day — 
tempting a young man to possible destruction. If you will 
show that signature to my nephew sometime you will 
make him supremely happy.” As if I didn’t know that. 
I’ve mailed it to Horace, but only for inspection. I must 
have it back by return mail. 

I’m rubbing up my Latin and Greek and taking a special 
course of reading with Mr. Hildreth. He says I must 
not give up the hope of a college course; that I’m bound 
to make the most of myself. I’ve sounded him a little on 
Tom. Say, that chap must be something uncommon ! 
When I told the professor that my sister always said Tom 
was a genius he replied, “ Your sister has discernment. 


CALLED HOME 


291 


You’ll all have reason to be proud of him yet; I expect 
to be/’ Lucky Tom, to fall into such hands! No expense 
will be grudged that can advance him. Which reminds 
me that I am enclosing a little money in this letter— only 
an X — on what I owe you. When my debts are all paid 
I’m going to lay up something toward my further schooling. 
I’ll never have a better chance with so liberal a salary and 
no board to pay. 

That ten-dollar bill, the second Ted had sent her, 
filled his sister with unutterable joy, though she for- 
warded it at once to his mother in his name, as she 
had done with the other. She knew that every dollar 
doubled its value in her mother’s estimation when it 
came from her firstborn. Indeed, Gail valued these 
dollars highly herself. Were they not the substantial 
proof of the new life her brother had begun? She 
prized them only less than the weekly letters which 
came giving her glimpses of his work and study; 
glimpses also of his growing dependence on a Higher 
than himself. 

The six months’ vacation Professor Hildreth had 
given to his secretary passed only too quickly. The 
secretary returned, but the professor secured an ex- 
cellent position for Ted with a firm doing business in 
the university town of W . It offered a good sal- 

ary and short hours. He was able to continue the 
studies he had begun under the supervision now of 
one of the college doctors whom his late employer had 
interested in the youth. 

During his stay with Professor Hildreth Ted man- 
aged to pay back the money Horace had advanced him 

with which to meet his bills when he left B . This 

had not been without much self-sacrifice, generous as 
had been his employer’s treatment; and the young man 


292 


GAIL WESTON 


drew a long breath of relief when it was done. He 
turned his attention immediately, however, to the few, 
outstanding debts that he had not reported to his chum, 
sending funds to Gail for their liquidation. She had 
already paid one of these bills and a portion of another, 
so that there was a small surplus left after the last 
receipt was in her hands to forward to his mother. 
With great joy she enclosed the receipts in a love- 
letter to her brother. “ Now for an education,” he 
wrote back hilariously. 

“I am well fixed and about as happy as they make 
them,” he declared in a letter some weeks later, though 
I have a fight of it at times with my love of self. 
But you know it is * trusting in Almighty God,’ not 
Theodore Weston, so most of the time it’s victory.” 

A month or two after came this word : “ I want you 
to pray earnestly that I may be guided in my choice 
of a life-work. I cannot afford to make a mistake 
there. I’m almost afraid to tell even you what is con- 
stantly in my thoughts. It doesn’t seem possible that 
God should call me — with my wretched past — to special 
service for himself; to preach the gospel of his Son. 
Yet, Gail, I am haunted with the conviction that this 
is so. Pray that I may be saved from delusions. I 
am not fit to take his name upon my lips — who knows 
that better than you and I ? Indeed, I cannot undertake 
such work unless I must. Gail, must I ? ” 

As the school year drew toward its close, applications 
for teachers began to come in to Doctor Kepler at the 
Rogen Hill Normal School, and he found one that he 
thought would suit Alice Rollins, who had already told 
him she would be obliged to teach a year or more 
before finishing her course. Both girls were rejoiced 


CALLED HOME 


293 


that next fall’s opportunity was secure, for both had 
felt the strain of the year just ended, and their stock 
of clothing had run very low. It had taken about all 
Gail could earn to pay their rent and living expenses, 
simply as they had lived, since she had set her heart 
on helping Ted with his bills. 

Alice divided her vacation between the bookstore 
and home. She seemed needed at home, for Dolly, 
who had been chafing all the year, became positively 
rebellious now, and poor Mrs. Rollins wrote that she 
could not bear it longer. Still, Alice must have 
clothes. There seemed no way to get them except by 
earning them. A new suit was a necessity if she was 
to teach in the fall, to say nothing of numberless other 
articles of apparel. Gail refused to consider her own 
needs — she could go shabby — but Alice must be prop- 
erly clothed. The suit — cut and made after working 
hours, by the aid of Mrs. Homer’s sewing-machine — 
lay neatly folded in the younger sister’s trunk when 

she left B the first day of August. When she 

reached Salton — the little town where her school was 
situated — early in September she found a box awaiting 
her containing many of the small necessities that she 
had decided she must go without. 

“ Was there ever a sister like you? ” she wrote Gail. 
“What can you manage to get for yourself?” 

“ Enough to begin comfortably,” was the reply. “ I 
can add to my stock as I go along.” 

It was two months after Alice had begun teaching 
that Gail received a letter from Dolly. 

I suppose you think I’m different from the rest of you, 
but I’m not. I’m only flesh and blood, and won’t stand 
being the slave of this family any longer. You’ve had 


294 


GAIL WESTON 


your chance — all of you have but me. You think you’ve 
shut me up for life in this miserable village and shabby 
old house, but you’re mistaken. I won’t be kept here any 
longer. If you don’t come home and let me go some- 
where I’ll run away — so there. I’m determined my life 
sha’n’t be spoiled because the whole lot of you are selfish. 
I’m going — I mean it. Mother’s almost sick, anyway, and 
she ought to be. Instead of spending the money you and 
Tom sent her for food and clothes, she’s gone and bought 
a fine carpet for the front chamber — her room — and moved 
herself into the attic, so’s Ted can have a fancy place to 
sleep in if he ever comes home. She’s always talking of 
him and the college course he is to have. It makes me 
mad. I’m a good mind to take the can of drab paint in the 
shed and cover that carpet from end to end. To think the 
clothes, and shoes, and hat, I ought to have are spread 
on a floor for Ted to walk on sets me crazy. I’ll do some- 
thing desperate yet. You’d better come home if you don’t 
want something awful to happen. I’m going to get out 
of this place. I guess I could sell books as well as you 
if I tried ; anyway I want a chance to try, and you haven’t 
Ted for an excuse for staying away any longer, and I’m 
sure you’ve not been helping us much either. 

Dolly. 

Gail sat staring at the letter in her hand after she 
had read it through, unmindful of the other which she 
had found with it on the hall table. It was hard for 
Dolly, but what could she do ? What ought she to do ? 
She fell on her knees to consult the wisdom that never 
failed her. As she arose presently her eyes fell on the 
neglected letter on the rug and she picked it up with a 
sigh, her face brightening as she saw it was from 
Ruth. Would it bring her light? She opened it with 
a prayer in her heart. 

I’ve had to come home; mamma is so miserable (the 
letter began. Ruth had been away at school preparing for 
college). She wanted me, but to be truthful, she wants 
everything by spells. It is doubtful if I can return to 
prep, again this term. She is very nervous; nothing suits 


CALLED HOME 


295 


her for long ; she says so often, “ I wish Gail was here ; 
she always knew what to do.” Papa called me into the 
library this morning, and guess what he said? It made 
my heart leap to my throat, you darling ! “ Ruth,” he 

began, “ I want you to write to Gail at once and tell her 
we need her here. I’ll pay her as much as she gets at the 
store, or more if she says so; but she must come. The 
doctor tells me that if we can pull your mother through 
another year or two she’ll get out of this all right. It 
simply needs time and patience; she mustn’t be fretted. 
I don’t know any one with an unlimited stock of patience 
unless it is that girl. We’ve got to have her. Then she’s 
like one of us ; it isn’t like taking a stranger in — one of 
those trained nurses. I’m afraid that’d give me nerves. 
Just put it strong in your letter. She can have her own 
way; fix things any way she pleases, only she is to come. 
She hasn’t that brother of hers any longer as an excuse 
for staying in B .” 

O Gail, can you come? The possibility of it makes me 
wild with delight, though I may have to go back to school 
if you’re here ; but I’ll have you vacation times and perhaps 
papa’ll let me have a tutor for the rest of the year. Please, 
please come if you can. I hear mamma and must run; 
but won’t you try hard to make it duty to say yes to my 
petition ? Lovingly, 

Ruth. 

The letter slipped from Gail’s fingers and her eyes 
roamed about the little apartment that had come to 
be home to her and with which had been so many ex- 
periences. She thought of her Sunday-school class, 
her employer. Was this a call from God? It seemed 
so. Both writers had referred to the fact that she 

no longer had Ted to keep her in B . She had 

come to the city solely for his sake — to save him. 
A great joy suddenly flooded her heart as she realized 
how fully that purpose had been accomplished. God 
had led her here; was he leading her home again? 
“ I will go where you ask me to go, dear Lord,” she 
whispered out of a heart-sense of absolute content. 


296 


GAIL WESTON 


Two weeks later found her doing the weekly wash 
in her mother’s kitchen, while Dolly stood at the sink 
wiping the breakfast dishes. 

“ You needn’t tell me,” said Dolly. “ The city’s no 
more dangerous for me than for you, and it has im- 
proved you. “Yes,” taking a long survey of her sis- 
ter’s face, “you really are much better looking, even 
when you’re washing clothes. I don’t exactly know 
what makes the difference, but there is a difference. 
Sometimes I think it’s your hair — that is darker — and 
sometimes I think it’s your face. Whatever it is, it is, 
and it is for the better. Then you have an air about 
you that comes from seeing fine people and things. It’s 
no use talking, for you can’t talk it out of me; I’m 
going to the city.” 

“Not just yet,” urged Gail. “How can you until 
you get clothes ? ” 

“ That’s a consideration,” admitted the girl, “ though 
you looked decidedly shabby the day you came. Still, 
I want to look well; a stranger needs to make a good 
impression. Do you think Mr. Norton will let me 
clerk for him ? ” 

“ Perhaps. You’d better wait till Allie has her va- 
cation and go with her. Mr. Norton has promised her 
a chance next summer, and may take you both.” 

“Wait all that time! I guess not. What do you 
take me for, Abby Weston?” 

“ A sensible girl,” smiled her sister. “ Your clothes 
will have to be earned and made, and that’ll take time. 
I will pay you regular wages for keeping the house 
while I am with Mrs. Banscombe, and will help you all 
I can nights and mornings. If I were you I’d rather 
wait until I had a nice stock of clothes and somebody 


CALLED HOME 


297 


to go with me than go alone. Then you’ll need to 
brush up a little on your learning before going into a 
store.” 

Dolly sighed, but made no further objections at that 
time. 


XXV 


DOLLY IN DANGER 

exclaimed Horace Franksin. 

1\| “ Yes, my dear fellow. My father’s a million- 

aire, all right, as I have informed you on previous oc- 
casions, but his money is tied up in bonds, real estate, 
African diamond mines, etc., etc., so that he finds it 
impossible to lay his hands on a little hard cash at 
present. He has so much he can’t get a little. See? 
I have decided, therefore, to drop my course for a year 
and devote myself to raising filthy lucre.” 

“ Let me advance you a trifle — as a loan, I mean,” 
as Rob Thompson shook his head. “ There’d be no 
hurry in paying it back. You could wait till you had 
your profession or till those diamond mines began to 
pay dividends,” laughing. “ Come, don’t say no,” as 
his chum’s head still kept up its dissent. “ I can’t get 
on without you, but I can let you have a little money.” 

“ My dear fellow, you cannot. That’s something I 
can’t afford — a debt. That’s something I won’t con- 
tract while this good right arm of mine ” — dramatic- 
ally baring the member in question — “ retains its 
strength. See that muscle! What is it for if not to 
make its owner’s way through life ? The firm of Horne 

& Onglas, at B , has secured my invaluable services. 

I have four days after college closes in which to bid 
my mother ‘ howdy ’ and ‘ good-by,’ and then I hie me 
to my task.” 

298 


DOLLY IN DANGER 299 

“Horne & Onglas? That’s the firm Ted Weston 
worked for once.” 

“ In very deed, and where your humble servant also 
worked during long vacation two years ago. I served 
at one end of the business then, while I hope to begin 
at the other now. I am offered ten plunks per week 
to begin with, and a rapid upward movement if my 
talents develop in the ratio present conditions indicate. 
The senior partner and my father were classmates in 
the days before one of them went into the hardware 
business and the other into digging for diamonds, which 
old acquaintance furnishes me with the opportunity of 
making my fortune. Have I sufficiently enlightened 
your ignorance, my dear Franksin, or is there some- 
thing more I can do in that direction? I wonder if 
Ted’s sisters are still rooming on Chestnut Street? I 
believe I’ll try for my old room and pick up an 
acquaintance if I can.” 

“ You can’t. Gail has gone home to her mother and 
Alice is teaching somewhere.” 

“ Hard luck ! I believe I’ll back out, after all, and 
go to work on the farm.” 

“ Or off on a holiday with me. I hate to think you’re 
not to have a vacation this year.” 

“ Have I not had one these nine or ten months past ? 
What is college life except a constant vacation? I 
quote you the questions put to me by one vastly my 
superior in years and wisdom — paterfamilias Thomp- 
son.” 

“ Stop your nonsense. I don’t know what I am to 
do without you this summer.” 

“ Count your mercies and the months you’ve had me. 
Then there’s the kid ” — this was the only designation 


300 


GAIL WESTON 


by which Rob ever referred to Tom — “ why don’t you 
go to Greenville with him ? ” 

“ I’ve thought of that, but I fear it would give me 
dead away. You see I hate to spare him to his family. 
His mother might suspect it and resent it.” 

“ I think I’d risk it for the privilege of being within 
speaking distance of his sister for a week or two.” 

“ Do you mean Miss Gail ? ” asked Horace sharply. 

“ Miss Gail, if it please your honor. She’s the patron 
saint of those youngsters as well as their playmate, 
or I miss my guess. She’s a fine article — that Gail — 
and as for Alice, she’s the sweetest little mousie in the 
world. Looks precisely like my mother, only her hair’s 
as gold as gold and mother’s is brown.” 

Rob reached B a train ahead of Alice and Dolly. 

He caught his first glimpse of them when, having re- 
turned to the station for his trunk, he espied Alice 
handing over her checks to a baggage transfer agent. 
“Another of Ted’s sisters,” he thought as he looked at 
Dolly, “and they will occupy the old room while I 
am among strangers.” For Rob had hastened to Chest- 
nut Street first thing on reaching the city, to find every 
room at the old house occupied except the attic, “ and 
that was spoke fur or wrote fur, weeks ago,” Mrs. 
Homer informed him. 

“ By the two young ladies ? ” he had asked eagerly, 
without a thought of how it would sound. 

“They’re oney my Miss’s sisters,” answered Riah 
disconsolately before her mistress could speak. “ My 
Miss isn’t cornin’.” 

So Hod was right about Gail, but some of Ted’s 
sisters were coming, Riah had said so. He was glad 
to discover later that one of these was Alice, and was 


DOLLY IN DANGER 


3 °! 


very much interested in the “ pretty young flyaway,” 
as he mentally styled Dolly. “ That fellow’s rich 
enough in sisters to lend some of us poor fellows one 
of them,” he muttered, as he strode away from the 
station. 

“ The pretty young flyaway ” rather turned up her 
nose at the attic room which Riah had prepared so 
carefully for their coming, and laughed openly at the 
poor girl’s attempts at decoration. “ How very beauti- 
ful,” she cried sarcastically, pointing at the cracked 
cup with a few blossoms in it that stood on a little table 
covered by a cheap red cloth, that Riah had bought out 
of her own money for the occasion, “ Alice, really that 
is a Bouncing Bess ! ” 

“ Mistess wants to know if you an’ t’other miss will 
take a cup of tea with her, teacher,” said the little 
maid, appearing smilingly at the head of the stairs 
just as Alice and Dolly had finished their inspection 
of the room and the closet under the eaves. 

“ Thank Mrs. Homer for us, Riah, and tell her we 
will be down as soon as we freshen ourselves after our 
car ride,” answered Alice gratefully. 

Riah bobbed her acknowledgment of this message, 
but did not take her eyes from the pretty, piquant, 
flushed face of the new-comer. “ Is she a sister of 
my Miss too ? ” she asked, indicating the “ she ” by 
a pointed finger. 

“ Who’s * my Miss,’ you goblin ? ” queried Dolly, as 
laying aside hat and cloak she prepared to bathe her 
face and hands. But Alice proceeded to introduce the 
pair. 

“This is my sister Dolly, Riah. Yes, she is Gail’s 
sister too.” 


3°2 


GAIL WESTON 


“ Ain’t she a purty one, though,” queried Riah, and 
Dolly flushed and dimpled. “ I wish I could return the 
compliment,” she laughed. 

Riah did not seem to heed the remark. She was 
too busy watching the girl who, with sleeves rolled 
up above dimpled elbows, poured water into the bowl. 
“ Her cheeks are ’most like posies,” she said admiringly. 

“ This kind of posy ? ” Dolly plucked a blossom from 
the cup as she spoke and tore it into small bits and 
scattered it. “ Don’t you know these are not posies ? ” 
she asked scornfully. “ I wouldn’t care to be like 
these.” 

“ Dolly ! ” chided Alice. “ Any kind of a flower is 
beautiful to Riah. It was very kind of her to give 
what she had to us.” 

The girl’s brows had lowered and darkened. That 
she should be laughed at, scorned, did not matter. She 
was used to that. But that a flower should be de- 
stroyed, its gift belittled, was crime. Her brow cleared, 
however, as Alice spoke. “ I picked them for you, 
teacher,” she said. “ P’raps posy girls don’t like 
posies.” She stooped as she spoke and carefully gath- 
ered together every broken petal and carried them 
away with her. “ She’s not posy inside,” she sighed, 
as if in disappointment, as she went down over the 
stairs. 

“ Well, if I ever ! ” laughed Dolly. “ Alice, why 
does she call you * teacher’ ? Is she foolish ? She 
really acts as if she cared for that miserable flower.” 

“ She does,” answered the older sister. “ She has 
never had much to value, but God has given her a love 
for the beautiful that is very touching. You can do 
much for her, Dolly, if you will; she admires you so 


DOLLY IN DANGER 303 

much. She calls me teacher because I taught her to 
read.” 

Mr. Norton had great faith in any one related to Gail. 
He was prepossessed therefore in Dolly’s favor, and 
when she did not at once prove satisfactory, had long 
patience with her. “ You’ll soon learn,” he said soften- 
ing the reproof he was forced to utter one day. “ Know 
your books, then you can talk about them — recommend 
them. Many persons who come to purchase do not 
know what they want; you must be able to guide them 
to a choice. When you’re not selling, read, and so 
inform yourself.” But Dolly preferred, when not sell- 
ing, to watch the other customers at other counters — 
the dress and style of the dresses worn, the shape of 
the hats, and their trimmings. 

“I don’t like the musty old books,” she confessed to 
Alice; “but the ladies. My! there was one at your 
counter to-day that had on the loveliest suit ! Did 
you notice it, Allie ? It was a divine shade of blue, and 
her hat was just a dream. Say, do you know one of the 
gentlemen — the very handsomest and best-dressed man 
I waited on to-day — asked me out to lunch with him. 
I told him I was sorry, but I always took my lunch with 
my sister, and knew she would not consent.” 

“ Dolly ! ” cried Alice in dismay, “ you don’t mean 
to say ” 

“Yes, I do,” laughed Dolly. “I mean to say that 
the finest young gentleman that entered the store this 
morning complimented me on my complexion — said it 
made him think of wild roses, and all that nonsense — 
and invited me to lunch with him.” 

“ You must go home ! ” exclaimed Alice in real 


304 


GAIL WESTON 


distress. “ You must go right home. I don’t dare to 
keep you here a day longer. O Dolly, how could you 
listen to him ? How could you answer him ? ” 

“ Why shouldn’t I, pray ? If he had been the com- 
mon sort it might have been different, but — well, I was 
rather flattered, I confess. I told him I thought he was 
out of order, but he said, not at all; that I had no 
need to blush and stammer, though it made me look all 
the prettier; that it was quite the thing to invite nice 
young shop ladies out to lunch; he had often done it 
and had seldom been refused.” 

Alice listened to all this with tears. “ Dolly, Dolly,” 
she cried; “if you should ever accept such an invita- 
tion it would break my heart. Imagine what Gail 
would say! I think you will have to go home, dear, 
as soon as we get our week’s pay.” 

“Well, I think I sha’n’t,” retorted Dolly, “whatever 
you think. Great reason to go home because a young 
man happens to be silly. I guess I’m not a fool, Allie 
Rollins, and would no more go with him than you 
would. You’re not the only decent member of our 
family, let me tell you ! ” 

Alice smiled through her tears. “ Of course you 
wouldn’t go with him,” she said; “but I was too 
frightened at the thought of a stranger daring to say 
such things to you to reason. If he ever speaks to 
you again don’t answer him. There are lots of wicked 
men in the world, and clothes do not make them nice. 
A nice man wouldn’t flatter a lady he did not know.” 

“ What a fuss you make,” answered the younger girl 
pettishly. “ You needn’t worry about me. I guess I 
can take care of myself, and as to leaving this city, I 
just won’t — not till I get my fill of it, anyway.” 


DOLLY IN DANGER 


305 


If Dolly had any other such invitations she kept them 
discreetly to herself. Once her sister ventured to 
question her a little, but was silenced in a very decided 
manner. “ When I have anything to tell you, Allie 
Rollins, I can do so without any help,” she declared. 

Robert Thompson met the sisters occasionally and 
wondered how they were getting along. He saw Dolly 
alone with Kate Polluck one day and felt a trifle 
troubled about it, then laughed at his own fears. Had 
he not seen both Gail and Alice in the same company? 
He guessed Ted’s sisters were of the right sort, cer- 
tainly that tawdry girl had improved under their ac- 
quaintance. Months later — after Alice had left the 
city, though he did not know that — Rob came upon 
Dolly and French Onglas strolling together one even- 
ing. The sight vexed him, though he tried to assure 
himself that it was in all probability a chance meeting 
of the two. But Dolly ought not to know such a fel- 
low. That night he contemplated himself very soberly 
in his mirror. “Wonder if I could cut him out?” he 
soliloquized. “ I’m a mind to try, even if I have a 
snub and freckles. Risky business, though,” shaking 
his head. “ She lives too much on the surface to dis- 
cover any hidden charms I may possess.” Then he 
laughed. “ She has Alice. Who could go astray with 
that morsel of angelhood beside her? Rob, you’re 
dreaming.” He shook himself and prepared for bed. 
His reverence for all womanhood bade him dismiss his 
fears. All summer he had intended to make himself 
known to the young ladies, but a natural diffidence — 
of which he was ashamed and to which he never owned 
— hindered him. “ It’s lots easier to talk of facing girls 
than to do it,” he wrote Horace; yet one evening he 
U 


GAIL WESTON 


306 

went to Chestnut Street on purpose to meet the sisters. 
He would get Mrs. Homer to introduce him; that was 
the best way, he decided. The girls were out taking 
a trolley ride for Dolly’s benefit. 

Rob, disappointed, turned off his object in calling by 
inquiring if there was an unoccupied room to be had 
yet, and Mrs. Homer declared she would rather have 
him in her house than any other young man of her 
acquaintance, and promised to let him know when 
there was a vacancy. 

In September Alice was forced to bid her sister a 
reluctant farewell, after urging her vainly to accom- 
pany her home. “When I’m just beginning to have a 
good time,” cried the girl much aggrieved. Unable to 
move her from the purpose, Alice had a long and 
faithful talk with her and one also with Kate Polluck. 

“I dread leaving Dolly alone; she is so young,” she 
said, “ but I feel sure you will look after her a little, 
Katie. You’re the only friend I have of whom I can 
ask such a favor.” 

“ I’ll do as much for her as I would for my own 
sister,” answered Katie, flattered with this confidence. 
“ She’s heady and flyaway, and too pretty altogether to 
be so gay, but she only likes a good time. Don’t you 
worry; I can look out for her all right. Nothing shall 
harm her ; I give you my word.” 

“ Oh, thank you ; but please don’t let her know I 
spoke to you,” begged Alice, “ and write to me at any 
time you think she needs me.” 

“ You’ve taken quite a contract to fill,” said Dyke, 
when Katie told him of her promise. “ I’m mighty 
glad it’s not my job. That girl is capable of raising 
the old Nick at a moment’s notice.” 


DOLLY IN DANGER 


307 


“ Perhaps you know all about it, Sam Dyke. She’s 
none of your common sort; she comes from lady stock. 
Look at her sisters ! ” 

“ Lady fiddlesticks ! ” interrupted Dyke. “ She’s a 
butterfly, and must take her chances of singeing her 
wings ’most any day. French’s hard after her for 
some reason. He’s not often soft on girls.” 

“Not French Onglas?” Katie looked dismayed. 

“ That’s what I said. He was walking with her the 
other night.” 

“ Then I’ve got to keep my eyes open. How ever 
did he come to know her ? ” 

“ That’s easy enough.” Sam looked rather sheepish. 
“ She’s not so hard to get acquainted with, though I 
may be to blame some. He saw her with you and 
asked me who she was, and, like a fool, I told him 
before I thought. I could have cut my tongue out 
afterward.” 

“Told him what?” 

“ That she was Weston’s sister. I only gave her 
name at first. ‘ Rollins,’ he said, * why isn’t it Vander- 
bilt? It ought to be to match her airs. Anybody’d 
think her some.’ 

“ ‘ I guess she belongs to nice folks/ I said. * She’s 
Ted Weston’s sister.’ 

“ * Weston’s sister ! ’ he asked eager like, with that 
somethin’ in his eye that makes you think of the 
evil one, ‘are you sure? Introduce me to her, will 
you?”’ 

“ An’ you did ! ” exclaimed Miss Polluck ominously. 

“No; I refused; said I wasn’t much acquainted my- 
self. He was suspicious right off, and wanted to know 
if I thought I could hinder him when he set out for a 


3°8 


GAIL WESTON 


thing; said he generally got what he wanted when he 
wanted it enough, and he had made up his mind to be 
friends with Miss Rollins. She was a daisy, and 
doubly worth knowing since she was Weston’s sister. 
I b’lieve there’s somethin’ more and worse than human 
in that fellow, and he hates Weston for sure.” 

“ How’d he get to know Dolly ? ” 

“ Can’t say. I’ve told you all I know. I’ve seen 
them twice together, and both times he looked at me 
out of his half-shut eyes, sort’r malicious and trium- 
phant like as he passed.” 

“ He won’t look malicious an’ triumphant long,” 
prophesied Katie. “ I guess I know how to spike his 
guns.” 

Alice had been gone only a week when Dolly gave 
up her position at the bookstore and went to work in 
the underwear factory with Miss Polluck. She changed 
her boarding-house at the same time from Mrs. Homer’s 
to an aunt of Katie’s who kept a few girl boarders. 

“ I’d take you home with me as I’ve taken you into 
the factory, since you’re bound to make changes,” said 
Katie, “ if it wasn’t for my stepbrother. He’s not fit 
for a girl like you to know. He’s as bad as French 
Onglas, and that’s as bad as they’re made.” 

Dolly looked conscious. “ What do you know of 
Mr. Onglas?” she asked indignantly. 

“ More’n I want to,” was the crisp reply. “ He came 
near ruinin’ your brother Ted an’ that’s not the worst 
he ever did. He’s slick an’ oily on the outside, but 
inside he’s another just like my stepbrother — the kind 
that gambles an’ drinks, an’ carouses.” 

Dolly’s eyes flamed. “ I don’t believe it,” she de- 
clared flatly. “ He acts like a gentleman, and he is one.” 


DOLLY IN DANGER 


309 


“ A whitewashed one,” cried Katie. “ What do you 
know about him? You’ve seen him once or twict in 
decent comp’ny an’ he acted decent. Most folks do 
when they have to.” 

Dolly’s head went up. “ Mr. Onglas is my friend,” 
she said haughtily. 

“ Well, he wasn’t your brother’s friend or your sister 
Gail’s,” was the passionate response. “ It isn’t his fault 
that your brother isn’t a blackleg or somethin’ as dread- 
ful. If I’ve heard right,” mysteriously, “ it isn’t his 
fault that Ted isn’t behind prison bars this minute.” 

At this Dolly flew into a passion. How did she — 
Kate Polluck — dare to hint at such a thing ! Her 
brother behind prison bars! Perhaps she didn’t know 
whom she was talking of. “ Our Grandpa Weston is a 
senator ! ” she ended triumphantly. 

“ King David’s son ,was a murderer, cried Katie, 
flinging a recent Sunday-school lesson at her antag- 
onist. 

But the anger of the girl was shortlived. It was 
only a few days after that Dolly said to Katie, “ You 
were mistaken about Mr. Onglas and Ted, Katie. I 
asked him about it. He was surprised that any one 
could believe such a story. He was real kind to Ted 
when he first came here, before he picked up other 
acquaintances not so good for him, and he always did 
all he could for him, and but for Mr. Onglas ” — Dolly 
hesitated, then added — “ Ted would have been worse 
off than he was.” She did not wish to reveal all that 
a repetition of the gentleman’s words might disclose, 
for he had assured her that he had saved her brother 
from exposure by holding back a forged note until Ted 
was able to meet it. 


3io 


GAIL WESTON 


Her new surroundings seemed to please Dolly, but 
they did not improve her. She wore gayer clothes, 
was out night after night, went much to parties and 
the theater. Katie often protested, accompanied the 
young girl sometimes, was unceremoniously shaken off 
at others; but Dolly’s vanity constantly overcame her 
pique at what she termed her friend’s foolish dislike 
of Mr. Onglas, and betrayed her into revelations of their 
meetings, good times, etc. All that she heard Katie 
repeated faithfully to Mr. Dyke. It was evident that 
French was anxious to win the girl’s favor. He took 
her only to the best places of amusement, was always 
courteous, generous, flattered her delicately, waited on 
her constantly. For what purpose? This was the 
question that troubled her rough but honest guardians. 

“ Either he likes her or he means to get even with 
Ted for something,” decided Dyke. 

“ He never liked nobody but himself,” declared 
Katie. “There’s Cherry King; he made b’lieve to like 
her, and how’d it turn out? But it’s no use to tell 
Dolly anythin’, ’cause she goes right to him with it 
an’ he smoothes it over. I’m a mind to write to Alice.” 

“ Not yet,” advised Sam. “ She’ll only lose school 
money and do no good. Dolly wouldn’t listen to her, 
and we’ve nothing we can say positive against his ac- 
tions so far. Wait! She’s such a kid she’ll not love 
him enough to hurt her, and she’s been well brought 
up. French is on his good behavior at present; wait! 
Just encourage her to talk. Don’t run him down or 
jaw about him, but play the sympathetic friend. That’s 
the safest way to get at facts and learn when you’re 
needed.” 

Katie wisely took the young man’s advice. 


XXVI 


ALWAYS A MAN HE CAN USE 

T HE winter was in full blast and Christmas was 
over when Katie perceived something new in 
Dolly’s manner. “ She’s restless. Sometimes she’s gay 
an’ sometimes glum,” she confided to Dyke. “ Some- 
thin’s on her mind.” 

“ S’pose you take her kinder sweet an’ get at the 
trouble,” advised Sam. “ P’raps she’s down ’cause 
French’s off on a trip.” 

“ How long since ? ” 

“ Last week. ’Twas sudden; he was sent unexpected.” 
“ It can’t be that ; she’s been almost as bad for a 
month past,” objected Katie; but she dropped in at her 
aunt’s house that night and found Dolly in the sitting- 
room with some of the girls. The visitor thought her 
friend’s restlessness greater than ever. 

“ She’s lost her beau, has Dorothy,” said one of the 
girls with attempted humor, looking toward Dolly as 
she stood at the window. 

“ Not she; she’s just found him,” laughed another. 
“ That’s what ails her. She’s in love.” 

“ He’s her first,” giggled a third ; “ that’s why she 
shows it. If ’twas you, Katie, nobody’d be the wiser.” 

“ Don’t imagine you’re wise, any of you, or funny 
either,” answered Katie loftily. “ I’ve come to spend 
the evening with you, Dolly.” 

At this Dolly led the way to her hall bedroom, cold 

3 11 


3 12 


GAIL WESTON 


and cheerless, put on her cloak for warmth, and sat 
down on the bed listlessly. 

“ You’re homesick,” began Katie. “ I can see it. 
You mustn’t mind what those girls say. They don’t 
know no better.” 

“ They tell the truth,” said Dolly. “ I am in love, 
and French hasn’t been near me for a week. He has 
been dropping off a little of late, anyway, but this week ” 
— she stopped and swallowed — •“ I’ve been at the old 
spot every night, and he’s not there.” 

“ That’s because he’s out of the city,” said Katie. 
“ Sam told me he’d gone to take his father’s place 
somewhere. His father’s laid up with the rhumatiz.” 

The fair, girlish face brightened. “ He might have 
let me know,” she said, however. 

“ He was sent sudden,” Katie explained, anxious to 
comfort her friend, ready even to defend French Onglas 
to do so. “ Don’t you worry.” 

“ He could have sent me word.” 

“ P’raps there’s a letter on the way now. I shouldn’t 
be surprised if you got one to-morrow. He’s gone a 
long distance, though I don’t remember where. I 
never knew him to hold to one girl as he has held 
to you.” 

Dolly’s face flushed. “ He never had a real girl — 
one that he loved — before,” she said softly. 

“ P’raps not.” Katie’s mouth stood open a moment, 
as if she was tempted to say more, but she did not. 
“ It’s quare, this love,” she ejaculated a moment after, 
“ an’ hard to be told.” 

“ I did not find it hard to know,” answered Dolly ; 
“ and French says I’ve taught him what it is. He 
never felt it before in the slightest degree, and he ” — 


ALWAYS A MAN HE CAN USE 313 

her voice fell, she blushed rosily — “ he adores me ; he 
said so — used that very word.” 

“You poor little thing!” Katie Polluck left her 
chair for the edge of the bed and took her companion 
into her arms full of a deep compassion for her. 
“ You’re nothing but a little child — a baby,” she whis- 
pered. “ How can you teach love ? ” 

“ Don’t babies teach people to love ? ” asked Dolly 
between a sob and a laugh, as she clung to her friend. 

“Yes,” replied Katie soberly, “pure, innocent love, 
and that’s the only kind you could teach.” With an 
effort she held her lips closed for she wished to add, 
“ And that’s the kind French Onglas is incapable of 
learning.” 

Dolly did not get a letter the next day — she was 
dealing with a man too cautious to commit himself on 
paper — but the day after that he waylaid her on her way 
home from the factory. 

“ I’ve been away,” he said, as she averted her face. 
“ I was hurried off without a moment’s notice and 
could not get to you. A letter would not have reached 
you any sooner than I have. Say you have missed me, 
little girl. Are you glad to see me?” 

Dolly was uncommittal then, but later this man 
learned what he had expected to learn — that his ab- 
sence had established his place in this child’s regard, 
for he had gone away on his own proposal — Robert 
Thompson having been selected for the trip — hoping 
thus to sting a young heart to fear, jealousy, despera- 
tion. 

One Friday night some ten days later Katie again 
sat in Dolly’s room. “ I’m so glad you’ve come,” 
chirped the maiden; “I’ve something to tell you— a 


GAIL WESTON 


3H 

secret. You’re not to breathe it to a soul — remember! 
Do you promise?” 

“ I promise,” answered Katie, but with an inward 
reservation. 

“ I’m going away,” whispered Dolly ecstatically, 
“ and with Mr. Onglas.” 

The young girl felt her companion start as she sat 
beside her on the bed. “ It’s not for long, you know — 
only till Monday, and we do not start till to-morrow 
night at eight-thirty,” purred Dolly. “ He wants to 
take me to see his mother’s sister, his only aunt. She 
has been like a mother to him, and he wants her to 
know me and tell his father about me. His father has 
other plans for him, you know ; but he is sure I will win 
his aunt’s heart right off, he thinks I’m so — so charm- 
ing,” with childish vanity and naivete. 

“You mustn’t go — promise me you won’t,” begged 
Katie. “ Your sisters wouldn’t want you to go; it isn’t 
proper. He knows it isn’t proper.” 

“We’re engaged. It’s perfectly proper,” cried Dolly 
loftily. 

“ Nothing can make it proper for you to go off with 
a man like French Onglas in that way. You must 
promise me you won’t.” 

“ I’ve promised him I will, and I will.” 

“ But not to-morrow night? You’ll put it off a week, 
won’t you ? ” pleaded Katie. “ He’ll do it to please you 
if he loves you.” 

“ I don’t want it put off. I’m sick of this work, 
work, work ! Before many months now I shall be in 
my own fine house. Then you shall come and visit me.” 

“ Not if you don’t put off this visit to his aunt. 
O Dolly, like as not he hasn’t any aunt, and if he has, 


ALWAYS A MAN HE CAN USE 315 

he’ll never take you to her. You don’t know how 
wicked he is — how he hates your brother. If Gail was 
here she could tell you what he is.” 

“ Gail did not know him. He did not even guess who 
she was ; it didn’t enter his head she was any relation 
to Ted until lately. He thought she was Some girl 
trying to trap Ted.” 

“ The idea ! And you b’lieve such nonsense ? As if 
French Onglas couldn’t tell that kind! Dolly, I haven’t 
wanted to tell you, but I must now, whatever comes 
of it. There was a nice little girl once — Cherry King 
was her name — that ” 

“You needn’t go on,” interrupted Dolly. “I won’t 
listen if you do.” 

“ But you must. French pretended to love her ” 

Katie’s companion drew herself from the arms that 
detained her, arose and shook out her skirts. “ You’ve 
been reading dime novels,” she said disdainfully. “ I’ve 
heard you were fond of them. I know Mr. Onglas and 
can trust his word. Whatever he has been he is good 
now, and he loves me. That’s all I ask. I shall meet 
him near Golden Block, at Railway Corner, to-morrow 
night at eight-fifteen if I am alive, so you might as well 
save your breath. I’ve passed my word to him and 
shall keep it. He’ll be too busy to see me again before 
that time, but I’ll meet him then, whatever comes.” 

It was snowing when Katie reached the street, but 
she did not know it; the wind caught up her gar- 
ments, almost bore her away, but she did not realize 
it. “ I promised to take care of her, and there’s no 
time to send for Alice,” she muttered. “ What’s done 
I’ll have to do myself and quick. Oh, if there’s a 
God in heaven I hope he’ll help me now.” 


GAIL WESTON 


316 

Her anxiety did not hinder her haste, neither did the 
storm. She pushed on with all her might in one di- 
rection — toward the clubhouse where Sam Dyke spent 
many a Friday night. She did not mind the laugh 
with which the young man who answered her rap sum- 
moned Dyke. She told him her story as they plowed 
through the snow. “ What am I to do? ” she demanded 
when the recital .was ended. 

“ Great Caesar, but I’d like to kill French Onglas,” 
was the excited response. 

“ I wish it wasn’t wicked and you could do it right 
away,” rejoined Katie; “but wishing’s no good and 
won’t bring Alice here. Tell me what to do quick, 
Sam. The time’s short.” 

The young man thus implored lifted his cap and 
scratched his head. “ I’m stuck,” he said. “ French is 
a nasty fellow to deal with, and he’s planned this thing 
all out you may be sure. I’ve never seen a fellow 
that’d come up to him when he really got started on 
a row, or one who’d care to tackle him when he’d 
begun ’cept ” — with sudden recollection — “ that Mr. 
Thompson of ours. I’m blest if he’s not the very 
fellow we’re huntin’ for — he’s a friend of Weston’s.” 
Sam stopped in the middle of the path in his excite- 
ment and confronted Katie. “ The very chap,” he 
chuckled. “ He’d just enjoy lettin’ daylight into one 
of those fancy schemes French puts up. He has no 
use for French. My, but didn’t he walk through him 
when he slurred Ted one day! ” 

“I never heard of him before.” 

“ He’s new ; hasn’t been round our place long ; but 
he’s all there.” 

“Where? I want to find him,” 


ALWAYS A MAN HE CAN USE 3I7 

He has changed his quarters for Mrs. Homer's, on 
Chestnut Street, if that’s what you mean.” 

“Where Ted used to live, and Miss Gail?” 

“I think so; yes.” 

“ Then I can find him,” with a sigh of relief. 
“ P’raps you’d better go along too, for fear you’re 
wanted. You can stay outside while I talk with him. 
I’m the one to talk to him, ’cause he’s got to know 
how bad thin’s is an’ I promised to take care of her.” 
A few minutes after Katie was at Mrs. Homer’s and 
had asked to see Mr. Thompson. 

“ To see me ! ” Rob turned about from the table 
where he was reading to confront Riah. “ You’re sure 
she wants me ? ” 

“ She said Mr. Robert Thompson. That’s what your 
letters say.” 

“ So they do. I’ll be right down.” 

There was little need for even the single glance Rob 
bestowed upon himself in the mirror ere he left his 
room. The girl below cared nothing for his personal 
appearence. 

“Are you Ted Weston’s friend?” she asked, as she 
met him at the door. 

“I am.” 

“Then I’ve come to see you. I want to save his 
sister.” 

“His sister! Not Miss Gail or Miss Alice?” 

“No; they’ll never need saving. It’s Dolly.” 

“Dolly! What’s the matter with her?” 

“ She’s ridic’lous.” 

“ And you expect me to save her from that ? ” Rob 
must have his joke, though the smile was smitten on his 
lips by the look the girl cast him. 


GAIL WESTON 


318 

“ You can’t save her from that, p’raps, but you may 
save her from goin’ bad. French Onglas is after her.” 

“ French Onglas ! ” Rob’s lips straightened to two 
parallel red lines across his face. “ He after Dolly 
Rollins, Ted’s sister? I’d like to see him at it ! ” 

“You can. That’s what I’ve come for. He’s goin’ 
to take her off with him to-morrow night on the train.” 

“ Not much.” 

“ That’s right ; I like to hear you say it. Sam 
thought you could stop it if anybody could. He’s told 
her a lot of nonsense about lovin’ her — she’s taught 
him how, you know — he never loved before, and all 
that. She b’lieves he’s goin’ to take her to his aunt, 
whom she’s to win right off by her beauty, an’ the aunt 
in her turn’s to get his father to let him have her. 
’Sif his father could do anythin’ if he wanted to have 
her! ” with a sniff. “ He’s just playin’ the devoted son 
an’ devoted lover as they do at the theater.” 

“ Devoted demon ! ” growled Rob. 

“Now you’ve hit it; I’m of the same mind. You’ll 
stop the whole thing an’ me an’ Sam’ll do all we can 
to help. I promised Alice to take care of her, an’ I 
meant to, but she’s dreadful heady.” 

“ So I should imagine. Suppose you tell me all about 
it and your plans.” 

“ I haven’t any plans. That’s your part. Ted’s not 
here, so you’ll have to take his place.” 

The young man walked the floor softly while the girl 
told him all that Dolly had revealed to her that night 
and all that she had said to Dolly. “ It didn’t do no 
good,” she ended. “ She wouldn’t hear a word about 
Cherry King. She’s bound to go with him.” 

“Who is this Miss King? Can we get her here?” 


ALWAYS A MAN HE CAN USE 319 

“We might — to-morrow; but she’s pretty delikit.” 

“ And it’s snowing and blowing a regular blizzard.” 
Rob took out his pocket memorandum. “ Give me the 
young woman’s address,” he said. “ Ah, that’s not far. 
Now at what corner did you say Miss Dolly was to 
meet Mr. Onglas? Train goes at eight-thirty? Did she 
say where their journey would end? No. Well, perhaps 

it won’t matter, but I wish ” The young man 

walked to a window and looked out. “ It’s certain we 
can’t get either Ted or his sisters here,” he remarked 
presently, turning to the waiting girl. “ It’s up to us 
and no mistake.” 

“ And you will save her ? ” anxiously. 

“ Or finish him,” grimly. 

“ Let me do somethin’. I want to help.” 

“ Come here to-morrow noon. I’ll try to have the 
threads well in hand by that time. I must think it out. 
Tell Dyke to keep mum, guard his looks, and be ready 
to follow my lead.” 

“ I’ll tell him. Isn’t there anything I can do to- 
night?” 

“ Nothing but go home and rest. This storm may 
tie up the whole thing and help us out. We can’t tell 
until morning. Be with Miss Dolly all you can. Don’t 
antagonize her. We must learn all we can of the 
affair. I shall want to know what the young lady will 
wear for an outside wrap; that will help materially.” 
He smiled as he put out his hand to the girl he had 
often doubted. “ It was kind of you to let me into this 
thing. If anything had happened to my friend’s sister 
which I could have prevented and hadn’t, it would have 
been a lasting sorrow to me.” 

Katie held to his hand while tears glistened in her 


320 


GAIL WESTON 


eyes. “ Do you know how to pray ? ” she stammered 
brokenly. 

“I do.” 

“ Then pray hard/’ she cried, wringing his hand. 
“That’s what saved Ted; it’ll save her, an’ I’ll help all 
I can.” 

She seized Sam Dyke’s arm at the corner and sobbed 
on his snow-covered sleeve as he drew her on. 

“ What’s up ? ” asked the young man much concerned. 
“ Did he turn you down ? ” 

“ No-o-o,” she sobbed; “he — he lifted me up to 
heaven. She’s as good as saved already. That’s a 
man! He’ll work like a demon an’ — an’ pray like an 
angel ; an’ there's not many that’ll equal him at either,” 
with tearful energy. 

“ Then I don’t see what you’re makin’ a fool of 
yourself for,” growled Sam relieved. 

Robert Thompson did not sleep much that night ; the 
weight of the morrow’s duty lay too heavy on his 
heart. He did not forget his late visitor’s exhortation ; 
almost every breath he drew seemed an agonizing 
prayer, yet he caught himself sometimes between his 
petitions with set teeth and fingers that itched to lay 
hold of the man who could thus deliberately plan a 
young girl’s ruin. “ By the help of God I’ll circumvent 
him,” he cried, as daylight struggled into his room. 

All night by spells he had consulted his window to 
see if the snow yet fell. So much depended on that. 
He scarcely knew whether to count the fast-falling 
flakes as friend or enemy. Did enough of them fall 
to stop traffic altogether, he might consider them 
friendly, but if only enough fell to hinder Mr. Horne’s 
return from New York, what then? For Rob had 


ALWAYS A MAN HE CAN USE 32 1 

decided that Mr. Horne was the first person he must 
consult in this matter. 

By eight a. m. the snow had ceased to fall, but the 
skies were yet forbidding. Rob telegraphed to Mr. 
Horne’s hotel in New York, to find that the gentleman 

had already taken train for B . Now if only kind 

Providence would hasten him on his journey. At just 
eleven-thirty a. m. he was closeted with the senior 
partner. 

“ The villain ! ” exclaimed that gentleman, as he 
listened. “ The villain ! I’d like to horsewhip him ! 

But I’ll fix him ! I’ll send him off to P by the 

three-thirty, and you must see that he doesn’t get any 
word to the young lady. He shall leave the city and 
mustn’t know that he is going until the last moment. 
I’ll telegraph Gardiner to meet him at Foxcroft; that’ll 
hinder him from dropping off anywhere or delaying on 
the route. If he finds Gardiner he’ll have to go 
through. Can you see that no telegrams reach the 
girl? That fellow’ll reform or he’ll give up his po- 
sition in our house if I have to quarrel with my old 
friend Jonas Onglas about it. The scoundrel ! scoun- 
drel ! ” 

Katie was waiting for Rob when he went home to 
dinner. 

“ Dolly’s to be home from the shop this afternoon,” 
she reported, “ an’ she’s goin’ to wear her gray rain- 
coat over her sacque and a big blue veil over her hat.” 

“ Good ! Can you be with her this afternoon ? It’s 
necessary to see that no notes or telegrams reach her. 
We are going to send French Onglas off on a business 
tour, and she must not hear from him.” 

“I’ll promise you she’ll get no word from him that 
V 


3 22 


GAIL WESTON 


comes to her boarding-house,” laughed Katie. “ She 
boards with my aunt, you know, an’ I’ll send auntie 
off visiting this afternoon an’ keep house for her.” 

“ That’s capital. Stay with Miss Dolly till she leaves 
the house. Watch the other boarders, if there are any, 
and be sure she doesn’t get a line from any source. 
See that she wraps up; it will be a bitter cold night. 
I’m going to play the part of French Onglas and meet 
her. Miss Polluck. Do you think I can carry it 
through ? ” 

“You if anybody, sir. I’ll trust you.” 

“ And I trust you. Not a word or a breath of all 
I have told you to any one, remember, not even to 
Dyke. We must keep our own counsel. One whispered 
word might spoil all. I am going to see Miss King 
this afternoon and get a written statement from her if 
I can. You comfort and cheer that poor little girl all 
you are able. She’s nothing more than a child.” 

“ That’s what I say — foolish and innercent. We’ll 
save her.” 

“We will, by God’s help,” answered Rob reverently. 

“ He’s the only help there is when a person’s stuck. 
I’ve learned that,” said Katie most seriously. “ An’ I’ve 
learned another thing about him too. He always has a 
man he can use when he needs him. He had when Ted 
went wrong.” 


XXVII 


A FUNNY ANGEL 



'HE cold was intense, the wind high, the darkness 


denser than she had ever known it before in all 


her short life, when Dolly, veiled, breathless, nervous, 
reached the corner where she had promised to meet her 


lover. 


Katie had been with her all the afternoon, had per- 
suaded her to lie down for a while, but it was in vain 
that she tried to rest. A vague uneasiness, a sense of 
impending evil, together with the consciousness of 
wrong-doing was strong within her. What if French 
Onglas was what Katie had said he was the evening 
before? What if he was trying to deceive her as Katie 
thought he had that other girl? If he was! Dolly’s 
pulses throbbed fiercely. She’d teach him that she was 
no Cherry King. The name she had heard but once had 
burned itself into her memory — had kindled the fires 
of jealousy and distrust in her breast. 

She longed, yet was too proud to question Katie 
further; she was tempted at this late hour to draw 
back from what she had undertaken, but again pride 
interfered. She would meet him according to her 
word but she would be on her guard, would watch his 
every utterance; be ready to resent the first word or 
act that proved him untrue. He should find out what 
she was. 

In this mood, with drawn face and troubled eyes, 


3 2 3 


3 2 4 


GAIL WESTON 


she prepared herself for her journey; arrayed herself 
in her newest dress, put up her hair carefully, let Katie 
add the little bits of finery to her costume. Then with 
her long rain-coat over her short jacket for warmth 
and her face and hat enveloped in the blue veil she set 
forth into the night and the bitter cold. Katie 
accompanied her as far as the next corner. 

“You poor little thing! I hate to let you go,” she 
whispered then. “ If you’ll turn back I’ll take you 
home with me. Think how your sister Gail would feel 
if she knew what you’re doing.” 

“ Don’t ! ” cried Dolly fiercely and turned away. But 
she came back in another second to where her friend 
stood, threw up her veil and kissed her passionately. 

“ Don’t think I’m bad,” she gasped. “ I’m not ; but 
I’ve got to find out what he is. You’ve tried to be good 
to me.” Then she hastened away. 

Katie stood where she was left until the slender 
figure passed out of sight. “ No, she’s not bad, an’ God 
won’t let her be,” she cried under her breath. “ Oh, 
if I could only be sure nothin’d happen an’ Mr. 
Thompson’d get there in time.” 

She was too excited to rest and paced the floor of 
the little home parlor until she heard Sam Dyke’s step 
on the sidewalk. She met him at the threshold and 
drew him in. “ Tell me quick,” she cried, when they 
stood behind closed doors. 

“ I saw a man an’ woman get into the train, an’ 
I know the man was Thompson,” was the brief reply, 
and Katie burst into tears. 

“ I — I — can’t help it,” she said to the troubled young 
man when he attempted to comfort her. “ An,’ Sam 
Dyke, you and me’s got to be out an’ out Christians 


A FUNNY ANGEL 325 

from this night. There ain’t anythin’ else to do,” and 
she wept again. 

“ I’m blamed if I can see why you’re cryin,” said 
Dyke at last. “ She’s on her way home, an’ as safe as 
if she were there while Thompson’s with her. French 
is shipped off all right too. Went on the four-fifteen. 
He gave me a sealed note for Dolly. Said he’d prom- 
ised to go with her somewhere to-night, and wanted 
her to know why he could not keep his engagement.” 

Katie lifted her head. “What did you do with it?” 
she asked severely. 

“ Mr. Thompson has it in his pocket,” chuckled Sam. 

As Dolly threaded her way to the appointed ren- 
dezvous her mind underwent some change. After all, 
was she not blaming Mr. Onglas without a hearing? 
Somebody was always telling what wasn’t true. Had 
he not warned her of Katie, told her that while the 
girl meant well enough she was ignorant and took all 
she heard for gospel truth? Perhaps he was right, 
anyway she’d find out what he was for herself, and 
meantime she would trust him. With heart a little 
lightened she looked eagerly for a masculine form as 
she reached Railway Corner, but none appeared. Per- 
haps he was waiting for her sheltered from the wind 
behind the business block yonder. She advanced 
toward it, but he did not come to meet her. Not a 
soul was in sight. 

She paced up and down, the wind catching at her 
cloak as if it would strip it off, loosening the ends of 
her veil until they streamed behind her like gauze 
wings. She grew cold, and shivered. It must be nearly 
train-time. What if he should be late? What if lie 


326 


GAIL WESTON 


did not come at all ? Her face grew hot at the thought. 
She would wait a little longer. A whistle blew near 
at hand, then a bell rang. Could it be their train? 
Was that a step on the snow? She peered into the 
darkness. A tall form loomed up before her, became 
more distinct as it came nearer — a form enveloped in 
a long, dark ulster. She sprang toward it with a cry 
of joy, all her anger lost in ecstasy ; all the little display 
of pique she had intended forgotten. 

“ I thought you would never get here,” she whis- 
pered. “ Is that our train in ? ” 

“ Yes. We’ll have to hurry. I have the tickets.” 
Rob blessed his stars at that moment that he had always 
been a mimic. 

The voice from the coat collar was muffled, but the 
hand on her arm was warm and masterful. Her heart 
leaped with assurance toward its owner. He had kept 
his appointment after all. A hurried rush through the 
darkness and into the sudden glare of the station 
lights; a race across the slippery platform, and she was 
lifted into the train; it was off. Guided to a seat a 
little apart from the few other passengers in the coach, 
she dropped down with a laugh and drew a quick 
breath — a breath of half-terror. She was really off on 
this madcap trip alone with French Onglas. Half 
defiance — it was her lookout ; she would bear the 
consequences. 

Taking off her veil, she shook it and turned to speak 
to her companion. Only her bag was in the seat be- 
side her. Where had he disappeared so suddenly? 
She felt vexed. When a moment or two later some one 
slipped into the seat she pretended not to know it and 
sat with face toward the window. The conductor 



Yes. We’ll have to hurry. 
I have the tickets ! " 


Page 326 








A FUNNY ANGEL 


327 


punched their tickets, and still she sat with averted 
glance, apparently absorbed in the abyss of darkness 
the outer world revealed. 

“ Miss Dorothea ! ” She started violently at the cour- 
teous tone, the strange voice, and cast a hasty glance 
toward the speaker. The dim light of the carriage 
disclosed an unknown face. 

‘'What are you doing here?” she exclaimed, thor- 
oughly alarmed. “ How dare you sit beside me ? 
Where is Mr. Onglas ? ” 

“ He was called unexpectedly away from home.” 

“ And you presumed to take his place ? Did he send 
you? Will he meet me at his aunt’s?” 

“ He will not meet you anywhere — I have seen to 
that. The telegram I sent him must have reached him 
before this and will put a stop to his further advances.” 

Dolly was terrified at this and plainly showed it, yet 
she faced him defiantly. “ How did you dare ? ” she 
cried. “ I would rather have his advances than yours.” 

“ Softly,” he said, smiling frankly. “ That shows 
poor taste, I’m bound to believe, yet there’s no need of 
letting the other passengers know our business, Miss 
Dolly. I am Rob Thompson, your brother Ted’s old 
friend. I am taking you home to your sister.” 

“ Taking me home ! ” Dolly was still excited, but 
her voice had fallen. “ I won’t go home.” 

“ How can you help it ? Our tickets are bought and 
we are on the road.” 

“ Our tickets ! We are on the road ! ” raved Dolly. 
“ Aren’t you ashamed of yourself ? Perhaps you think 
you are a gentleman, Mr. Robert Thompson, but you’re 
not. If you had been you’d have told me at once that 
Mr. Onglas had been called away and allowed me to 


GAIL WESTON 


328 

go back to my boarding-house. Instead of which you ve 
trapped me like this.” 

“ The day of trouble would only have been put off 
I fear, in that case, while now I trust it’s done away 
with forever,” answered Rob quietly. “ Let me speak 
to you earnestly and frankly Miss Rollins, for a few 
moments, and then we will let this matter drop out of 
our remembrance. Mr. French Onglas is ” 

But Dolly interrupted. “ You needn’t bother to tell 
me what he is. I know him,” she said severely. “ He 
at least is above running away with a young lady 
without her consent.” 

“ But not above winning her consent at the expense 
of his own honor and her innocency,” answered Rob 
gravely. “ I have a letter here,” drawing a sealed 
envelope from his pocket. “ I have not read it — I have 
not asked and do not know what is written in it, but 
this I do know — it was written by a person who knows 
Mr. Onglas, to her lasting grief.” 

And — and you told her who I was and that I was 
going away with him to-night ? ” 

“ I told her nothing of the kind.” 

“ She’s jealous,” cried Dolly. “ Don’t I know. She’s 
like some other folks who worm out your secrets and 
— and try to — to ” She was near to tears. 

“ She is broken-hearted,” corrected Rob, “ and near to 
the grave. This letter has the significance of a message 
from the dead.” He held the missive toward her. 

But she shrank from it. “ I don’t want it. I won’t 
read it. I know what it will say, and you needn’t 
think you hide her name from me, Mr. Robert Thomp- 
son. She is Cherry King. I’ve heard of her, and — and 
I hate you ! ” 


A FUNNY ANGEL 


329 


“ I’m sorry.” 

“ You needn’t be for all the good it’ll do you. I 
hate you. Perhaps you think you can take French 
Onglas’ place ” 

“ God forbid ! ” answered Rob solemnly. 

“ Oh, you’re pious too, with all the rest, are you ? ” 
continued Dolly. “ I hate pious folks,” with a half- 
sob; “and you’re homely as well as pious; awful 
homely ! I’d be perfectly ashamed to own such a snub 
as you have.” 

“ That’s right ; rub it in. I made my nose myself 
exactly as it is, and for a purpose. It’s a put-up job; 
mind that. It’s a lightning rod intended to carry away 
any surplus electricity that may be hanging around. 
Better run off all you’ve got,” smiled Rob imperturb- 
ably. 

“ You don’t seem to mind fibbing, if you are pious. 
You know you never made your own nose,” said the 
girl childishly. “ If you had it’d have been ” 

“A heart-smasher, you bet,” interjected Rob humor- 
ously, and Dolly snorted. 

“ If you think you can compare with Mr. Onglas 
in any way,” she began again, “ it only shows what 
you don’t know about yourself. Think of his elegant 
form ! ” 

“ Mine’s better,” interrupted Rob. “ I’m six feet in 
my stockings and as straight as an Indian; my worst 
enemies concede that. My shoulders are broader and 
my legs longer than Onglas’. I’ll submit to being 
measured if you doubt it. I score two on him there.” 

Dolly lifted the eyes she had hidden in her hands 
to meet a pair of dancing orbs. 

“ Fact,” he said smiling broadly. “ I looked all over 


33 ° 


GAIL WESTON 


my personal effects once — pro and con — pretty seri- 
ously. It was after I had seen you with Mr. Onglas; 
I didn’t like the sight. I stood before my mirror that 
night and took account of stock to judge if I had any 
chance of cutting him out. Not that I was at all in 
love with you, Miss Dorothea — I have never aspired 
to that honor — but because, being my mother’s son, I 
feel bound to get the best of the devil when I can. 
I thought likely all you wanted was a little clean fun, 
and that might be in my line. But my nose nipped my 
adventure in the bud — either that or the press of busi- 
ness ” — with a twinkle of the eyes — “ I’ve forgotten 
which.” 

“Truly?” asked Dolly. 

“Truly,” answered Rob. 

She was regarding him with real interest, her hand- 
kerchief had fallen to her lap. “ What a silly ! ” was 
all she said, but she laughed. 

“ That’s famous ! ” he exclaimed. “ A laugh is a 
great institution. Miss Dorothea, why shouldn’t you 
and I be friends? I’ve wanted to know you and your 
sisters these ages past. Only my modesty and bash- 
fulness held me back, while Mr. Onglas — destitute of 
such virtues — forged ahead. Can you blame me for 
getting even with him when I had a chance? I’ve 
worsted him for fair now, snub or no snub.” 

Dolly laughed again. “ I wouldn’t care,” she said, 

“ if you would let me go back to B . I like a lark; 

but I don’t want the folks at home to know ” she 

hesitated, the rich color mounting to her brow. 

Rob’s heart sang at sight of the crimson flag, yet 
he looked another way until she had recovered her- 
self. “ Nobody either at your home or elsewhere will 


A FUNNY ANGEL 


331 


know any more than you wish to tell them,” he said. 
“ I’m mum. You don’t begin to know what a forgetterer 
I have.” 

The girl’s head went up. “ If I could be sure of you,” 
she began. 

Rob’s forefinger went to his throat. He crossed it 
gravely, an irresistibly funny look in his eyes. Dolly 
burst out into laughter again, and he joined her. A 
sleepy couple in a forward seat roused and craned 
their necks ; one wondered aloud, “ What those young 
things found to laugh over.” 

“ Oh,” answered the other, “ at their age there’s 
nothing else to do.” 

“ The young things heard the observation. Dolly 
looked at Rob and the laugh choked in her throat. 
She wanted to cry. 

“ I wouldn’t,” said Rob, understanding. “ The Lord 
has been kind to us — we have something to laugh over. 
We’ve met in a strange way, but we’ll be friends here- 
after and loyal to him whatever comes. If you had 
known French Onglas as I know him and as you be- 
lieve him to be now, Miss Dorothea, you would not 
have listened to anything he said. Some knowledge 
is worth all it costs. Down deep in my heart I’m 
singing the doxology, in spite of my apparent silliness. 
I think that’s what God wants you to do.” 

Dolly’s eyes dropped to her lap. She did not want 
her companion to see what glistened in them. “If 
you insist on taking me home,” she said in a low tone, 
“ I shall stay there forever.” 

“ Until God leads you elsewhere,” he corrected. 
“ That’s right. Yes, I shall insist on taking you home.” 

He made a pillow for her head of his great ulster 


33 2 


GAIL WESTON 


presently and bade her take a nap. “There’s only 
need of one watcher,” he said cheerily. “ I’ll wake 
you when we reach Greenville.” 

The young girl shut her eyes obediently and lay 
very still, but she was not sleeping. By and by Rob 
detected a tear rolling over the pretty rounded cheek 
nearest to him. He turned his eyes away and whistled 
softly and unconsciously a tune dear to his mother, 
“ Lead Thou Me On.” Ever after that hymn was the 
dearest of all hymns to Dolly Rollins. 

It was nearing twelve o’clock when the train rumbled 
into Greenville Station. Rob took Dolly’s grip and his 
own and helped her to alight. “ You’re not going with 
me?” she inquired anxiously. 

“ Only far enough to see that you get home safely. 
You will have to pilot me; I’m a stranger here.” 

“ Are you going right back to B ? How. can 

you ? ” 

“ I can’t. I’ll stop over till Monday morning.” 

“ Where ? It’s mean to let you go to the hotel.” 

“ You’re not letting me. I’ve set my heart on 
putting up there. Do we turn here ? ” 

“ Yes.” The girl was silent for a moment. She 
had put this young man to much trouble and expense, 
she thought contritely, and she must soon meet those 
at home. How could she explain her presence ? “ What 
shall I tell mother and Gail?” she asked. 

“ Whatever your heart prompts you to say — that is 
true. They will be glad to see you; will take it for 
granted, perhaps, that you wanted a glimpse of home.” 

“ And my trunk ? ” 

“ You can send for it yourself, if you’d rather, or I 
will ask Miss Polluck to pack it and forward it to you.” 


A FUNNY ANGEL 


333 


They had come within sight of the cottage. “ Some 
one is sick or Gail is reading,” said Dolly. “ How — 
how can I thank you ? ” stopping and stammering 
painfully. 

“If you want to thank me, that’s thanks enough,” 
answered Rob sincerely. “ I’m glad you’re not angry 
with me.” He put out his hand. “ Be sure your first 
step is right, Miss Dorothea,” he recommended ; “ that 
will help to make the next one so. God has given 
you a girl’s pure heart. Hold it for him. I shall stand 
here until I see you enter the door,” he added, as he 
placed her bag in her hand. 

Gail was the only one up. She was writing letters; 
her only opportunity to do this came after the house- 
hold was asleep. She had finished one to Ted, and one 
to Tom, and had just begun one to Alice when the rap 
came on the door. A little startled, but thinking it 
might be a neighbor seeking aid, she answered the 
summons immediately, though she inquired who was 
there before opening the door. 

“ Me— Dolly.” 

“ Oh ! ” Gail’s fingers trembled in her haste to draw 
the bolt. She caught the figure in gray to her arms 
and drew it in. 

“ Thank God,” whispered the tall young man linger- 
ing in the shadow of the old tree near-by. “ Thank 
God. 4 He who has begun a good work will perform 
it until the day of Jesus Christ.’ Dear little mother ! ” 
For every thought of blessing or of service for his 
Master was ever linked in Robert Thompson’s heart 
with his mother. 

“ Dolly ! I am so surprised and so glad to see you, 
dear. Were you homesick? How you are shivering. 


334 


GAIL WESTON 


It must have been very cold on the train. It is a bleak 
night/’ Gail took off her sister’s hat and outer wrap 
and seated her before the stove — where the fire had 
barely gone out — with her feet in the oven, and sat 
down beside her to chafe her hands. She guessed by 
the quivering lips and averted eyes that Dolly’s heart 
was full, and said no more. 

“Ye-es; I — I was homesick,” began Dolly, and 
stopped. “ Be sure your first step is right,” she heard 
the manly voice saying again; “that will help to 
make the next one so.” She flung her arms about her 
sister’s neck and burst into a passion of tears. “I’m 
here because I’m bad,” she sobbed; “because I can’t 
be trusted in the city. I — I’m vain, and silly, and sick 
of myself, and Rob Thompson ran away with me.” 

“ Rob Thompson ! ” cried Gail, horror-struck. “ Not 
Ted’s friend? Surely he would not lead you into 
evil ? ” clasping the weeping girl closer. 

“ He — he led me home, if that’s evil,” laughed Dolly 
hysterically. “ But — but he had to run away with me 
to do it, and oh, isn’t he good — and funny ! He said 
to me up under the old tree, ‘ Be sure your first step is 
right.’ If he hadn’t I’d have lied to you. He kept 
me from that and he kept me from ” she shud- 

dered. “ O Gail, I don’t know jyhat he saved me from 
to-night.” 

It was some time before Gail got the whole story, 
and oh, with what fear, what thanksgiving, she listened 
to the recital. “ And you let him go to the hotel, 
Dolly? You ought to have brought him home,” she said 
as the last word fell from her sister’s lips. 

“He wouldn’t come. You don’t know him, Gail. 
He was afraid of throwing the slightest reflection on 


A FUNNY ANGEL 


335 


me. He considered me in everything and I — I called 
him names ; all manner of things. I told him he was no 
gentleman ; that he was homely and had a snub 
nose ” 

“ Oh, Dolly ! ” interrupted Gail reproachfully. 

“ Yes, I know it was horrid; but he took it all right; 
just like an angel — a funny angel,” added Dolly, 
recalling Rob’s face and words. 

The next morning Gail started for church very 
early and called at the village hotel on the way. She 
asked for Mr. Thompson. When he came into the 
room where she awaited him she could scarcely be- 
lieve her eyes ; this was no other than the “ nice boy ” 
of Mrs. Homer’s boarding-house and about whom she 
she had so often wondered. 

“ Are you Mr. Thompson ? ” she asked incredulously. 

“ I am,” he smiled. 

“ And I have met you so often without knowing who 
you were when you occupied Ted’s old room ! ” 

“ You cannot feel any worse about that than I did 
when Horace Franksin informed me that I had lived 
every day for months within reach of Ted Weston’s 
sisters. I’m grateful to fate for giving me another 
chance.” 

“ And I — Dolly has told me all, Mr. Thompson. 
How can I thank you for what you have done for her — 
for us?” Gail’s voice faltered. 

“ By never mentioning it again,” answered Rob 
heartily. “ I should be ashamed of any man who would 
do less under the circumstances, more especially my 
mother’s son.” 

What could Gail say more except, “ Stop with us 
while in Greenville, please?” 


336 


GAIL WESTON 


“I shall be happy to, if it will not embarrass Miss 
Dorothea.” 

“ I think she will be glad to see you ; we all shall ; 
but my mother does not know all; it did not seem 
best to tell her. She will welcome you as Ted’s friend.” 

“ Miss Weston,” t was Rob’s frank reply, “ it will 
please me best if you and Miss Dorothea will pledge 
me never to mention this matter to any one again. 
Why should Ted and your sister Alice know anything 
about it? When God forgives he refuses to remember. 
Let us.” 

Gail cast him a smile, her only answer, but they 
understood each other from that moment. Presently 
she gave Rob another invitation. “Were you intend- 
ing to go to church this morning? Will you accompany 
me? ” 

“ Now,” answered Rob boyishly, “ if this isn’t what 
I call Thompson luck, what is it? That was the very 
first desire of my heart when I opened my eyes this 
morning — to accompany you to church. But I had no 
idea it could be gratified. I really did not expect to do 
better than sit in church and make eyes at you.” 

Rob took the twelve-thirty train back to B late 

that night, or rather early Monday morning. “ Don’t 
thank me,” he said humorously to Dolly as she tried 
to voice her gratitude before he left. “ I’ve found 
your sister Gail ; that’s reward enough for any service.” 

“ You can’t have her,” she answered sharply after 
a keen glance into his face. “ You can’t have her; she 
belongs to us. Nobody can have her. We need her 
here.” 

“Wait and see,” he whispered mischievously. “You 
haven’t seen me do my best yet.” 


A FUNNY ANGEL 337 

Katie Polluck waylaid Rob that Monday noon as he 
neared his boarding-house. 

“ Dolly ! ” she gasped. 

“ Is well, happy, and safe at home with her sister.” 

“Was she mad at you?” 

“Well, I reckon. You’d have thought so if you had 
heard her.” 

“ But you got her there.” Katie looked the young 
man over admiringly. “ You’re simply great ! ” she said 
with emphasis. 

“ That’s what,” laughed Rob, flushing nevertheless. 
“ Glad somebody has found it out.” He lifted his hat, 
smiled, and disappeared. 

“Talk about angels!” soliloquized Miss Polluck 
looking after him. “ They’re not in it with him. He’s 
just exactly as good, an’ a hus’ler besides. Won’t 
French Onglas be mad at him, though; but he can’t 
hurt him. He could no more hurt him than he could 
hurt the stars in heaven ! He’s too far above him.” 


w 


XXVIII 


FINDING AN UNCLE 


OLLY seemed absolutely content at home. Gail, 



LJ watching her anxiously, saw no signs of unrest. 
She discovered instead a new humility which was very 
touching. She was afraid at first that in the exuber- 
ance of her sorrow the child would lose the merry 
audacity that had characterized her; but it came back 
by and by, tempered at times with a gentle thoughtful- 
ness for others unimagined in the past. She took up 
the work of the home with zest as if she really en- 
joyed it, dropping quietly into the old life, caring for 
the children, the dishes, the rooms ; not from any 
seeming sense of duty, but with evident pleasure. 

“ I believe you’re glad to get back, Dolly,” said Gail. 

“ You’ll never know how glad,” was the quick re- 
sponse. “ I was brought home you know, and after all, 
there’s no place like it. It seems so nice to find old 
things — things I used to know ” — as if that “ used ” 
represented ages. “ I can’t explain it, but I feel it. 
I guess home is woman’s sphere, after all.” 

Gail sent the speaker a quick, appreciative glance. 
“ I think so, and I felt just as you do when I got home 
— as if I’d been away for years, and it was remarkable 
that I should find things so much as I had left them.” 

Dolly smiled. “ I’m glad I’m not the only one that 
feels that way. I thought I was.” 

“ Dolly’s better than she eber was,” Pet confided to 


33 8 


FINDING AN UNCLE 339 

Ben. “ She makes me say my prayers ebery night 
now, ’cause God loves good little girls best.” 

“ I guess it’s the city,” answered the small boy orac- 
ularly. “ It couldn’t help Gail, ’cause she was good 
enough a’ready; but it helped Ted an’ Tom. I’m goin’ 
there soon’s ever I grow up.” 

“ That’s some years ahead, thank goodness,” said 
Dolly, who had come upon the children in time to 
hear Ben’s sage remark, “ and let me tell you one thing, 
you’ll only find as much goodness anywhere as you’ve 
got with you.” The young girl broke off abruptly and 
looked away toward the horizon. “ That’s not true,” 
she admitted slowly, as if speaking to herself. “We 
have to count on what other folks have too, and if it’s 
not exactly catching, it’s — it’s — something that tells.” 

There was no wonderful moral revolution percep- 
tible in Dolly, yet she was changed. “ I’ll dam those 
stockings if you’ll read to me,” was her common offer 
to Gail, and Mrs. Rollins always drew her chair close 
to the two when a story was on hand. 

“ What’s got into you, Dolly ? ” the mother asked 
on one such occasion. “You never used to care for 
books.” 

“ I’m not sure I do now,” confessed the girl, “ but 
I want to, and intend to learn to like them. Go on, 
Gail.” She always called her sister Gail these days. 

Quite often when the older sister came home from 
the squire’s she found Dolly at the organ — hymn book 
before her — patiently picking out some favorite tune. 
“ I wish you’d teach me a little,” she said at last. “ I’ve 
forgotten all Ted taught me, and we didn’t get far. 
I want to be able to play ‘ Lead Thou Me On.’ Sit 
down and sing it for me, please; sing it through.” 


340 


GAIL WESTON 


The request for this hymn came again and again, 
generally at twilight, after the children were in bed. 
Then Dolly would sit with hands clasped and eyes fixed 
on the old tree on the hill while her sister’s sweet, rich 
voice stole into her very soul. 

“ It hurts,” she confessed one evening when Gail, 
coming from the organ to her side, found her sobbing 
softly. “ It hurts, but I love it ! ” passionately. 

Yes, some change had come over Dolly. Gail won- 
dered, with an ache in her heart, what it meant. It 
could not be that her little sister cared for French 
Onglas. No memory of him would suggest holy mel- 
ody, and she was convinced that the hymn had some- 
thing to do with Dolly’s state. She feared — no, Gail 
refused to listen to her fears. Dolly must not learn to 
think too tenderly of the young man who had rescued 
her. 

“ Whom have you heard sing ‘ Lead Thou Me On,’ 
dear ? ” she inquired gently one evening as she finished 
the last strain. 

“ I don’t remember of ever hearing it sung,” was the 
puzzling response. Then, “ Gail, do you know I have 
never realized until now how you can sing. I’m only 
just waking up.” 

“ And still not quite wide-awake ? ” questioned Gail 
playfully. “ If you are dreaming dreams dear, I hope 
they are safe ones. So many of our dreams are but 
illusions — never materialize.” 

“ If I dream dreams,” answered Dolly, flushing in the 
dark, “ I dream them knowing they are only dreams.” 
The hands Gail folded lovingly in her own trembled. 

The winter passed and spring set her fairies to work, 
and all about the little cottage old mother earth took 


FINDING AN UNCLE 34I 

on loveliness. The trees budded and blossomed and 
Ted’s letters were as full of hope as were they. 

“I begin at the university in the fall; I’ve passed 
my exams, Gail,” he wrote. “ It seems almost too 
good to be true, and I’m sure of a scholarship, Doctor 
Sargent tells me. I have enough money saved to start 
in all right, and I’ve arranged to work for the firm 
some part of every afternoon and Saturdays. I shall 
be a long way behind Horace and quite a little behind 
Rob, and only a year in advance of Tom — think of 
that youngster making such strides! — but I’ll get there 
and get through, and that’s the main thing.” 

Alice went to B for the long vacation, but Ruth 

remained at Greenville, and it proved a delightful sum- 
mer to the three girls — Ruth, Gail, and Dolly. Mrs. 
Banscombe’s health had improved. The squire declared 
that the fulfilment of the physician’s prophecy was at 
last in sight, and he gave Gail all the credit for it. 
The warm weather agreed with the lady, and she 
wanted to go off somewhere for a change, but the 
doctor counseled waiting until fall. So Ruth was spared 
to her friends and, as her mother was less exacting, 
Gail had leisure for the little excursions the others 
planned. 

Allie’s letters were a great diversion to the girls, 
though Dolly was inclined to be a little jealous over 
their contents and was very indignant when the first 
one spoke of Robert Thompson as “your snub-nosed, 
freckled-faced * nice boy/ Gail.” Alice no longer occu- 
pied the attic at Mrs. Homer’s, but she had secured 
the little room that had once been her sister’s, and Rob 
at last obtained the introduction for which he had long 
waited. 


342 


GAIL WESTON 


He really is “ nice/’ she wrote, though he keeps me laugh- 
ing at nothing whenever he is around. He speaks of you 
and Dolly as if you were old friends. I imagine he detected 
my surprise when he first inquired after you, for he ex- 
plained that he had seen you with me the summer we were 
here together, and that he “ felt like kicking himself ” when 
Mr. Franksin told him who we were. He is very sociable ; 
often happens along after prayer meeting; sometimes asks 
to go with me ; carries my water pitcher upstairs for me ; 
lends me his magazines and makes himself generally useful. 
I’ve met Kate Polluck occasionally when with him, and really 
the delight she manifests at seeing us together is ridiculous. 
I fear Katie is sentimental, but she was quite hurt when 
I intimated as much. She asked me one day seriously if 
I didn’t think Mr. Thompson an angel. The question 
struck my risibles. She was downright angry when I said, 
“What, a snub-nosed angel?” and laughed. “You don’t 
know,” she cried. “ There’s many an angel that’d be proud 
if they could equal him,” by which remark you will see 
that she was slightly faulty in her grammar as well as her 
sentiment. But he is “nice”; your word fits him, and 
we’re quite good friends. 

You should have heard him laugh when I told him about 
Katie’s angel, and he blushed like a girl when I referred 
to her hints of mysterious but heroic deeds that he had 
done. He’s really bashful, impossible as it seems. 

“The person who can find a hidden angel in me, Miss 
Rollins, needs strong mystery to back her claims,” he said 
with that irresistibly funny look of his. “ I should say the 
fact that she hints at the possibility of wings here,” touch- 
ing his broad shoulders, “ought to queer Miss Polluck’s 
judgment for good. I can’t imagine a person of your 
discretion putting any stock in her further imaginings or 
connecting me with things angelic.” 

His anxiety to rid me of any interest in Katie’s mystery 
rather increased my belief that there were some grounds 
for it, and when I saw him talking earnestly to her on a 
street corner one day I began to grow inquisitive. “Tell 
me about Mr. Thompson,” I said to her last Thursday 
night as we went to the mission together. “ He is very 
brave and fearless, I think I have heard you say.” 

“P’raps I did an’ p’raps I didn’t. There’s folks like 
vi’lets that likes to be hid,” she answered sententiously. 
“ If he hain’t no angel, p’raps he hain’t no hero. Least 
said soonest mended.” Think of that for a call-down. 


FINDING AN UNCLE 


343 


September came before either Alice or her sisters 
were ready for it; such a short, bright summer it had 
been. Then Mrs. Banscombe, the squire, and Ruth 
went away, and Gail, having packed them off, ran home 
to embrace Alice, who had arrived that morning, and 
exulted over two whole weeks of her all to herself be- 
fore school would begin again, for Alice was to put off 
her normal course yet once more, the school committee 
at Salton having insisted on her return. 

That evening’s mail brought two letters — one from 
Ted, one from Tom. Ted’s was dated from W . 

“ There’s quite a little fever about town,” he wrote, 
“ and some rumor that it may delay the opening of 
college, but I hope it’s only talk. Now that I find 
myself a freshman candidate, I’m all impatience to 
begin; but it’s peculiar weather and I’m tired. Had a 
letter from Hod last week, and rather envy him and 
Tom their 4 run,’ as he calls it, ‘through Europe.’ 
When my head aches, as it has for two days, I wish 
I was with them. Well, my day may come at that too. 
I’m hoping to have a week off in which to take a peep 
at you home folks before I settle down to study,” etc. 

Tom’s letter was from Switzerland, and filled with 
enthusiastic descriptions of trips hither and thither and 
the praises of Horace Franksin and of “ Uncle Burns,” 
as he called Professor Hildreth. 

“ It’s great ; I can’t give you any idea of it on paper. 
Wait till I see you! We’re trying to get through in 
time for the opening of school and college, though 
there’s danger of Uncle Burns being delayed. He 
seems to think a week or two will not matter much 
with us. But not so Guardy; he’s in a hurry, and 
delighted because Ted has passed. So am I.” 


344 


GAIL WESTON 


Typhoid fever at W ! Gail felt a trifle anxious, 

especially so since her brother had mentioned his head- 
ache. She wrote, urging him to take his vacation at 
once if he could arrange it. Before she could expect 
a reply, a letter reached her addressed in a strange hand 
from a physician — a Doctor Bently — asking her to come 

at once to W , as her brother was down with fever, 

and called for her constantly. There was little else in 
the letter, except a caution not to be alarmed; that the 
young man was not critically ill, but wandering a little 
in his mind, and it was hoped her presence might prove 
beneficial. 

Gail’s concern took the form of immediate action ; 

she was ready to take the next train to W , but 

her mother insisted on going also. “ Theodore will 
want his mother when he comes to himself,” she ar- 
gued. “ I should never forgive myself if anything 
happened to him and I was not there.” 

In vain Alice and Dolly remonstrated, and the two 
left Greenville on the late afternoon train. A sense of 
desolation settled over the little house and did not lift 
even after Gail’s brief letter reached its inmates, as- 
suring them of a safe journey and that Ted was no 
worse. Time passed leaden-footed. 

It was a beautiful, warm, sunny afternoon, but Dolly 
did not appreciate its beauty. Gail and her mother 
gone, Alice to depart in two days, and no immediate 
prospect of Ruth’s return, made her feel already for- 
saken, especially so since Alice was spending the day 
with one of her former teachers. Lonely and a trifle 
blue the young girl went down to the village post-office 
and then around by the station. Dolly was always 
going around by the station these days. She had a 


FINDING AN UNCLE 


345 


hope hidden deep in her heart — it could scarcely be 
called expectation — that some day she would see the 
one who had alighted at that station with her one bleak 
December night coming back again. 

She stood this late afternoon in early September, 
as she had stood before, until the train arrived and its 
few passengers alighted, with breath quickened, and 
eyes wide-open; then she turned slowly away from the 
one gentleman, stout and florid, and the little old wo- 
man, left on the platform. The old feeling of disap- 
pointment semed stronger than ever; it quite overcame 
her, though she told herself scornfully that “ of course 
she knew nobody would ever come — didn’t expect it.” 
The train puffed noisily from the station, ringing its 
bell, as she made her way across the street. But she did 
not get far. The one masculine passenger — a man well 
on in life — followed straight after her, called her at 
last. 

“ Can you tell me where to find a person by the name 
of Weston?” he asked when he had caught his breath, 
“ or — or Rollins ? ” gazing keenly into the young face. 

“ My name is Rollins — Dorothea Allen Rollins,” 
Dolly answered in surprise, “and my mother’s name 
used to be Weston.” 

“And used to be Maria Allen before it was Weston? 
Am I right? I thought I couldn’t be mistaken,” as 
Dolly answered both of these questions in the affirma- 
tive. “ Soon’s ever I saw your face, my dear, I said 
to myself that’s Maria Allen’s daughter— looks enough 
like her to be her olden self. I’m your mother’s brother 
— your Uncle John — and I’ve been trying to find your 
mother for quite a while back.” 

“ Uncle John ! ” Dolly glanced at the rough but 


GAIL WESTON 


346 

kindly face more than once as she walked beside him. 
“ We thought you must be dead long ago. Mother has 
often told us about you.” 

“ And never anything very good ? So you all thought 
me dead? Well, I’ve been as good as dead — living on 
a Mexican ranch for half a lifetime, after I got tired 
of tossing on the briny deep. I waked up awhile ago 
to the fact that I’m growing old, w’ith no likelihood of 
growing younger, and in a fair way to need own folks 
some of these days. So I sold out and started 
homeward.” 

“ Had you much to sell ? ” ventured inquisitive Dolly. 

“Well, quite a bit,” smilingly. “I’m not rolling in 
wealth, as the novels put it, but I guess I’ve enough 
tin to keep you and your mother from want for the 
rest of your lives if you’re not too extravagant, with 
a surplus for a jolly lark now and then. Like the 
prospect, do you ? ” as Dolly’s eyes shone up to his. 
“ I thought you looked kinder downhearted a spell ago 
when I saw you at the depot. The first town I struck 
after reaching this country was Salton, a poked-up bit 
of a place, but an old chum of mine had wheedled 
me into promising to stop there and hunt up his folks, 
so I did. At the boarding-house where I put up there 
was a little schoolmarm that made me think of your 
mother, though she’s not as like her as you are. Know 
her, hey ? ” for Dolly was unmistakably excited over 
“ school-marm ” and “ Salton,” both in one sentence. 

“Your sister, is she? Well, I guessed as much. I 
asked her a few questions — not enough to scare her — 
and went off to the town where me and Maria was 
born and always lived before I run away. I couldn’t 
learn much there, so I lit out and traveled back to 


FINDING AN UNCLE 347 

Salton. Finding my little schoolmarm gone, I took 
her bearings and followed her.” 

“ I’m glad she was gone,” said Dolly. “ I like things 
to happen to me once in a while.” 

Mr. Allen chuckled. “ Quite a happening,” he said, 
“ to pick up an old uncle with one leg in the grave 
who has come to camp on you till the other leg 
follows.” 

“ Well, it’s something that hasn’t happened to any 
one else in our family,” answered Dolly with elation. 
“ I hope Alice won’t get home before we do ; I want 
to surprise her at supper-time. Mother and Gail are 
in W . Ted — he’s our oldest brother, and a Wes- 

ton — has the typhoid fever, and the doctor sent for 
Gail. Of course mother had to go.” 

“ Sure. She’d want to be with him. Ted Weston’s 
boy too ! Maria was mighty fond of Ted. Who’s this 
Gail?” 

“Ted’s sister, and — ours. She’s the best of us all. 
Everybody that’s sick wants her — and everybody that’s 
well too. Ted’s out of his head and calls for her.” 

“And you’re keeping house — you and Alice?” 

“Alice goes back to Salton day after to-morrow, 
then there will only be Ben and Pet and me — and you, 
of course. I’m glad there’s somebody besides us three.” 

Dolly’s wish was gratified. Only Pet was in sight 
when the pair reached the house. The little girl came 
running in, and was soon installed on Uncle John’s 
knee as he sat in the big chair in the parlor window 
where Dolly had ensconced him. 

“Now,” she said briskly, “if you have any checks, 
Uncle John, I’ll find Ben and send him for your luggage 
and have that out of the way.” 


GAIL WESTON 


348 

Mr. Allen’s eyes twinkled. Dolly had adopted him. 
“ I’ve only a grip with me,” he said. “ Not much use 
being loaded down with cargo, you know, my dear, 
when you’re not sure of your port. I’ll send for the rest 
of my traps after I see whether your mother decides 
to keep me or not.” 

“ I’ve decided that,” guaranteed Dolly. “ Don’t you 
worry.” 

It was amusing to see Alice’s surprise. “ And you 
are my uncle ? ” she asked, as if unable to take in the 
truth, “ and you didn’t know it when you were at 
Sal ton ? ” 

“ I wasn’t sure of it until an hour ago, when I met 
your sister here. She set me right and brought me 
home.” Uncle John looked at Dolly as if the ownership 
was not all on one side. 

“ I’m glad you’ve come,” Alice assured him. “ Won’t 
mother be surprised when she hears you’re here.” 

“ She’ll be sorry for once that she didn’t listen to 
us,” assented Dolly. 

In the two days left to her at home Alice became 
well acquainted with her uncle and was quite sure he 
had been sent to their need by the One who was ever 
mindful of their difficulties. Her mother’s going to 

W had left the house penniless, except for what the 

young girl could spare from her meager savings. She 
had wondered how she could leave the children alone 
with Dolly — how they could live. And now here was 
Uncle John, who could be trusted with the little brood, 
and moreover, had his purse with him, and it was 
neither small nor empty. 


XXIX 


THE STRANGE NURSE 

M RS. ROLLINS and Gail found a tall, spare, 
plain-faced woman presiding over the sick- 

chamber when they arrived at W . She rose from 

her place beside the bed, her finger on her lips, as the 
boarding-house mistress, Mrs. Brooks, piloted the pair 
into the room. 

“Not a word/’ she said in a low voice, throwing 
open the door and waving them out again. She fol- 
lowed. “ He mustn’t be disturbed, not even if you be 
his mother,” she answered to Mrs. Rollins’ protesta- 
tions that he was her dear son and she must see him. 

“ No, you mustn’t — not jest now,” contradicted the 
stranger. " Not till you’re still clear through an’ sure 
you won’t bile over. One word — if ’twarn’t the right 
one — might be the death of him. You come right in 
here,” flinging a door open. “ Let me take your bonnet. 
That’s right ! Now you lay right down on the bed 
an’ rest. You’re all beat out an’ need to be nussed 
yourself. Mrs. Brooks, this poor cretur must have a 
cup of tea at once.” 

Mrs. Rollins really tired between their journey and 
her fears, was like putty in the hands of this diplomat. 
Flattered at being recognized immediately as delicate 
and by the nurse, she willingly yielded herself to that 
shrewd person’s care, and was reposing ere long on 
the ample bed, propped up by a couple of fat pillows, 

349 


350 


GAIL WESTON 


while she sipped at the hot tea and nibbled the buttered 
toast. 

Meanwhile the stranger had taken the measure of this 
mother’s companion. “ She’ll do,” she thought. “ She 
can be trusted,” and she soon drew Gail from the room. 
“ We sha’n’t be gone long,” she said, as she bent over 
Mrs. Rollins. “You jest git well rested and perked 
up while we’re away. You’re not ust to car rides nor 
strong enough to stan’ ’em. The girl’s all right; she’s 
young an’ strong, an’ might’s well be learnin’ to handle 
the ropes. The boy’ll not need you to-night, an’ you’ll 
both be better ef you put off seein’ each other fur a 
spell. 

“ That’s a nice sort of a woman, that nurse,” said 
Mrs. Rollins with condescension in her tone and an un- 
mistakable air of languor, as she turned to Mrs. Brooks 
after the departure of the stranger and her daughter. 
“ What’s her name ? ” 

“Well, really, I can’t say. I don’t know. She’s 
from over the way — is nursing a sick lady. She’s been 
awful kind; came of her own accord. I’d have had to 
send your son to the hospital, and that’s a fact, if it 
hadn’t been for her. I hadn’t time to tend him, and 
was at my wit’s end for fear the other boarders would 
leave. But she heard I had somebody sick here — our 
Mary Ann told their servant, I believe — and she came 
right over to offer her services. ’Twas she who told 
the doctor to send for Mr. Weston’s sister. It seems 
she’s used to sickness.” 

“ It’s very kind of her,” said Mrs. Rollins appreci- 
atively, “but I can’t say I think it was kind of you 
to think of sending Theodore to the hospital,” she 
ended, much aggrieved. 


THE STRANGE NURSE 


351 


“ Well, I hated to. He’s been a good boarder — no 
trouble and good pay; but when a woman has to earn 
her own living she has lots to consider. The men don't 
rightly know yet what ails him — I’ve kept sort of quiet 
till his folks get here. But I couldn’t have done it if 
it hadn’t been for that nurse.” 

“ That nurse ” meanwhile had conducted Gail to the 
sick-room. “ You’re not to fret,” she said authori- 
tatively after a glance into the girl’s pale face, as she 
drew her into the improvised anteroom — once the 
trunk room of the establishment — where she held audi- 
ence with the doctor. “ You’re not to fret, ’cause it’s 
no use, an’ it’s not trustin’ God. I’m not sayin’ it ain’t 
bad — this beginnin’ right off light-headed — ’cause it is, 
but theer’s a God in Isra’l an’ hard cases don’t worry 
him. I like that boy; his whis’le jest did my heart 
good when he was passin’ the house. I’m stoppin’ jest 
’cross the way for a spell, an’ kinder homesick, so I 
noticed that whis’le. Then he had sich a quick step, 
’s if he was up an’ a-comin’ — like sumbuddy I ust to 
know. So when I see the kirridge bring him home 
t’other day — he was took in the shop, you know — I 
jest made it my business to fin’ out what ailed him. 
They wanted to sen’ him to the horspital — the boarding- 
house woman an’ the doctor — but I wouldn’t hev it. 
I fight horspitals, though I don’t say they ain’t good for 
those who ain’t got no own folks. I told ’em I’d do my 
share of the nussin’ till they found out if ’twas goin’ to 
amount to much, an’ I guess that doctor see that I 
understood sickness — oughter, seein’ I’ve took all the 
care of a del’cate woman for nigh onto thirty year. 
When I heerd the poor fellow a-callin you all the time 
I jest looked over his letters an’ give the doctor your 


352 GAIL WESTON 

address an’ tole him to git you quick. I’m glad you’ve 
come.” 

“ Thank you,” said Gail, “ you have been very kind.” 

“ P’raps. The Lord, he only knows motives,” an- 
swered this strange woman. “ My name’s Hines — not 
Mrs. I was never married, thanks be; I’m plain Miss, 
an’ prefer hearin’ my name without no handle. I’m 

here with my mistress, Mrs. W . They wanted to 

send her to a horspital, but I sot myself agin it, an’ I 
gin’rally git my way. ’Cause we be country folks 
ain’t no reason she need go to a horspital, an’ my own 
cousin, Sarah Rachel Sanderson, livin’ right here in 
the city where all the big gun doctors air. Sarah 
Rachel’s well fixt, but she’s never avarse to arnin’ a 
penny, so I jest wrote for her best room an’ managed 
thin’s to suit myself. He didn’t quite relish it at fust 

— Mr. W , I mean — but he gin in when he see I 

>vas sot that way. I reckon he’s mighty tickled now 
that I did, for she’s doin’ splendid. I sent him orf 
this week, so’s we wimmen folks could git a breathin’ 
spell. He’s needed at home an’ he ain’t needed here. 
Nobuddy can’t see to thin’s like the one that oughter 
see to ’em; an’ no matter how good a hand you’ve got 
to do a thin’ for you, you’re needed yourself ef you’re 
the head. We’ll be a-follerin’ of him ’fore long, seein’ 
she’s ’most well, but when she heerd of that boy bein’ 
sick — though she didn’t know him from Adam — she 
was jest possessed to have me come over. ‘They’ll 
need you,’ sez she. 

“‘They kin git a nuss,’ sez I, though I was fairly 
achin’ to git here. ‘Not a nuss like you,’ sez she — 
you see she thinks me uncommon, not knowin’ enny 
other for years — ‘ Sarah’ll look out for me for a spell,’ 


THE STRANGE NURSE 


353 


sez she. An’ that’s how it was fixt. Mis’ Brooks — a 
good cretur, but worried, never havin’ larned to trust 
God — she’s sot with him orf an’ on while I run over 
to the house to her, an’ we got along pretty well. But 
I’m glad you’re here, an’ after you git a cup of tea 
I’ll leave you to give him his med’cine for a spell. I’ll 
be back ’fore the doctor comes, an’ mind you, you’re 
not to look at that boy’s parched lips an’ blackened 
teeth, but straight to A’mighty God. I don’t believe 
he’s goin’ to let him die, leastways you an’ me kin 
* agree ’ to ask him not to. We’re frien’s.” 

“ Indeed we are ! ” exclaimed Gail. “ I’m so glad 
somebody else prays.” 

“ Bless the child ! Theer’s lots of folks a-prayin’ 
night an’ day, day an’ night, for harder thin’s than the 
savin’ of a life. An’ they’re heerd too. The Lord’s jest 
bewitched to humor his children when he kin — when 
’tain’t goin’ to set ’em up too much.” 

“ Oh, thank you,” whispered Gail, suddenly over- 
come. “ I have so many hopes done up in Ted. He 
expects to preach the gospel.” 

The sharp blue eyes looking into the girl’s gray 
ones lighted; a smile of genuine joy transformed the 
plain face. “ That’s news wuth hearin’ at a great cost,” 
was the fervent ejaculation that fell from the thin 
lips. “ I always knew God was a-workin’. Gail Wes- 
ton, that boy won’t die — he’ll live an’ declare the 
goodness of the Lord.” 

When the young girl returned to the anteroom after 
a hasty lunch, Miss Hines was waiting to give her di- 
rections about the medicine, lights, etc. “ He’s been a- 
wantin’ you, an’ whether he seems to sense it or not 
he’ll know you’ve come, an’ stop frettin’. But I’m 
x 


354 


GAIL WESTON 


afeard your mother won’t help him enny. She’s sort’r 
depressin’ in her make-up. Well, she’ll not bother us 
to-night, an’ ” — with a sigh and a grim smile — “ we’ll 
jest have to trust her to the Lord with all the rest.” 

Mrs. Rollins paid her first visit to the sick-room in 
the company of the nurse. “ It won’t do to let him 
hear your voice,” she cautioned before they entered the 
chamber. “ Sick folks sense more’n we know, an’ your 
voice’ll stir him, naturally. It’ll be hard on you not to 
cry an’ go on, but like’s not it’ll be the death of him 
if you do. I guess you’ll help him most by refusin’ to 
see him offen.” 

“ But Abby sees him often.” 

“Your daughter? She’s diff’rent; she kin keep her 
feelin’s under. She’s got a peculiar tech too — sech as 
some has naturally — that kinder soothes folks. When 
he’s bad — ravin’ like — she rubs his hands an’ quiets 
him. Now you an’ me can’t do that, an’ ’tain’t our 
fault we can’t — ’tain’t given us. But we kin be thank- 
ful it’s given her, and that she’s here.” 

Her arm through that of the nurse, Mrs. Rollins tip- 
toed to the bedside and drew back in terror. The big 
gray eyes of her firstborn stared up at her, no recog- 
nition in them; the poor, parched lips parted to emit a 
strange jumble of words so thickly uttered that she 
could not guess their meaning. She burst into a passion 
of sobs and cries and was borne to her bed, where she 
lay in a fit of hysterics for an hour. 

“ You’re no more fit to be here than a new-born 
baby,” said the nurse, half in scolding, half in pity. 
“ You’d orter go home, you’ll jest be sick ef you stay, 
an’ like’s not kill the boy besides. You’d better leave 
the nussin’ to me an’ Gail an’ go back to the children. 


THE STRANGE NURSE 355 

‘ To every man his work ’ — an’ to every woman too — 
but yours ain’t nussin’.” 

The doctor agreed with the nurse; the mother was 
not allowed to see her son again. There was but one 
drop of comfort in this — that everybody seemed to rec- 
ognize her delicacy. Mrs. Rollins felt the accession of 
importance involved in this fact, and adopted the little 
affectations that are the perquisites of invalidism. 
When Dolly’s letter arrived telling of her brother’s 
advent and hinting at affluence, she began seriously to 
consider her return. 

“ If I cannot be of any use, owing to my unfortunate 
nerves, I’d better go,” she said to Miss Hines, “ seeing 
poor John has come back from his wanderings. We 
two are all of the family left, and he wishes to make 
his home with me. He charges me to get a trained 
nurse for Theodore and save myself and Gail.” 

Miss Hines snorted. “ If Gail Weston an’ me both 
give out we may have to put up with sich, but we’ll 
not count on it jest yet,” she said. “ I’m glad your 
brother’s come,” she went on a moment later, changing 
her tone, “ an’ it seems like a rale call home now, 
don’t it? If you want to go, why, I’ll do your share of 
the nussin’. I’ll do the best I kin to take your place 
in ev’rythin’,” comfortingly, “ an’ the Lord’ll take it 
the same as ef you did it. Some poet sez — I’m not sure 
it warn’t that John Whittier that lived up our way 
once — ‘ Willin’ is doin’, God calls it done.’ That’s 
’zactly my sentiment, if it was a poet that said it. 
You jest take it to heart; it’s easin’.” 

It was a relief to Gail to know her mother had re- 
turned to the children though her interest in her uncle’s 
home-coming was not very great. Her being was too 


GAIL WESTON 


356 

dulled by the anxiety that held her heart fully to take 
it in, but it was good to be assured that he had as- 
sumed the expenses of the house. She had the sub- 
stantial proof of his generosity in the crisp ten-dollar 
bill her mother had left in her hand with which to 
purchase medicine and the little necessities of the sick- 
room. She began to wonder, for the first time, who 
had paid for the medicine already used. 

“ Hum ! ” muttered Miss Hines testily when ques- 
tioned. “ You don’t ’spose that boy was dead broke 
when he was took sick, do you? I guess the doctor 
found somethin’ to buy thin’s with.” 

The nurse and Gail were excellent friends. The 
young girl looked to her for comfort as well as advice. 
“We take the most of your time — Ted and I,” she said 
one day apologetically. 

“ Time’s like money, oney good to spend,” was the 
quick response. “ She sends me over ; she’s afeard 
you’ll tire out. She don’t need much tendin’ now, an’ 
Sarah Rachel’s willin’ to keep an’ eye on her; it’ll pay. 
You an’ me air goin’ to change jobs some day. She’s 
mortal fond of singin’, and don’t git much of it. I 
git kinder jealous for her when I hear you a-soothin’ 
your brother. I’ll tend him while you run over an’ 
sing for her once in a while. It’ll do her good to hear 
an’ see somebuddy young. Young folks air to old 
folks jest for all the world what the sap is to the tree 
when the spring comes — sorter pushin’ — sendin’ the 
best of ’em to the surfis. She’s had little enough of 
young folks for many a year now.” 

There were times when Gail did not feel very young, 
as the anxious days and nights succeeded one another. 
“ You must take the air every day — I insist on it,” 


THE STRANGE NURSE 


357 


said the doctor emphatically, as she followed him to the 
anteroom one evening. “Where’s Miss Hines? Not 
here to-day? Hope she’s not going back on us. See, 
I can spare an hour; you can trust your patient with 
me; suppose you take a run. If that woman fails us 
I’ll repent not having sent your brother to the hospital 
when I wanted to. You’re tired out.” 

“ I shall be better to-morrow. I fear Miss Hines 
has been kept by the illness of her own patient,” said 
Gail, disappearing at the doctor’s imperative “ Off with 
you.” 

She took a short walk and then tapped at Mrs. 
Sanderson’s door. “ I should like to see Miss Hines,” 
she began, and the tall, gaunt woman, as if hiding 
behind the maid, became instantly visible. 

“ Step this way,” she said, opening a door on the 
left. “ Is he wuss ? ” 

“ The doctor says not, though I feared he was all 
the afternoon. I hope your patient is not worse.” 

“It’s jest a narvous spell, an’ about over for this 
time. She’s old an’ has seen sorrer an’ disappoint- 
ment. They’re over hard to bear when you’re old, 
child. She’s the Lord’s, his true follower, but theer’s 
times — I’d like you to see her, child, an’ sing for her; 
but it won’t do for her to know your name. She knew 
some one onct by your name. It’d upset her in her 
state. If she was stronger it wouldn’t matter.” 

Gail nodded her understanding of this. “ If you’re 
sure it won’t hurt her and if I have time I’ll be glad 
to sing to her,” she replied. 

“ Take time. ’Twon’t kill that doctor to give you a 
minnit more’n he meant. Sing somethin’ comfortin’.” 
Miss Hines led the way to another room. 


GAIL WESTON 


358 

Among the pillows of the big, white bed rested such 
a face ! So sweet, so patient, so pale, so saintly ! Gail 
stooped over it and caught her breath. 

“ I’ve come to sing for you,” she said. 

The half-opened eyes widened, the mouth smiled a 
welcome. “ Thank you, dear,” came in the softest of 
whispers. 

Not now, but in the coming years, 

It may be in the better land, 

We’ll read the meaning of our tears, 

And there, sometime, we’ll understand. 

What made Gail sing that song? She did not know. 

Then trust in God through all thy days ; 

Fear not, for he doth hold thy hand ; 

Though dark thy way, still sing and praise ; 
Sometime, sometime, we’ll understand. 

On through the whole hymn, verse by verse, the 
maiden sang in rich, clear, soft, yet triumphant tones. 
Quiet tears crept over the old face. “ Thank you, 
dear,” she said again, as the young girl bent above the 
bed to say good-by, drawing the ripe lips to her 
quivering ones. 

Miss Hines, to Gail’s astonishment, clasped her in 
her arms the moment they reached the hall. 

“ What made you sing that ? ” she inquired brokenly. 

“ It was the only thing that came to me.” 

“ Theer’s a God in heaven, an’ he’s workin ! ” ex- 
claimed Miss Hines softly. “ Never you forget, child; 
he’s allers workin’ as fast as he can to answer our 
prayers.” 

“ How good you are ! ” exclaimed Gail, clasping the 
speaker’s hands in her own. 


THE STRANGE NURSE 359 

“ I hain’t never noticed that I was good,” was the 
dry reply, “ but Fve known who was.” 

“ So have I,” cried Gail with quick tears. “ Surely, 
I can trust him with Ted.” 

“ H’ssh ! Don’t you speak that name here ! Did you 
ever hear who your grandpa an’ grandma was? Ef 
you know their names jest whisper ’em in my ear.” 

Gail whispered: “David Weston, Abigail Sercross 
Weston. I was named in full for grandma.” 

“ What was your pa’s name, an’ your ma’s before 
she was married? Whisper ’em.” 

“Theodore Weston — my brother’s named for father. 
Mother’s name before she married was Maria Allen.” 

“ An’ that doctor talks of horspitals,” ejaculated this 
strange woman scornfully, “ an’ own folks to nuss him ! 
He’ll not die — God’s doors turn on hinges of prayer. 
We don’t allers sense it ’cause they’re never rusty an’ 
don’t creak. ‘ Sumtime we’ll understan’. The situa- 
tion might stretch a Solomon’s wisdom to the breakin’ 
pint, but what we’re not ekal to we’ll jest have to turn 
over to the One who is.” 

“ Lovisa ! ” called a feeble voice. 

“ Cornin’,” answered Miss Hines promptly. “ Theer,” 
patting Gail gently, “ you go back to your brother an’ 
don’t be afeard to laugh a little. Folks that air 
trustin’ their heavenly Father can afford to act like 
they was ; ‘ actions speak louder than words/ an’ God 
knows when we’re a-trustin’ him an’ he’s the oney one 
that needs to know. Most thin’s has to happen ’tween 
him an’ jest you ef they’re ever a-goin’ to happen. I’ve 
got to run now,” as the feeble voice again called. She 
took Gail by the shoulders and turned her about and 
looked in her face by the light of the hall lamp. 


360 


GAIL WESTON 


“ I’ll be over to spell you to-night,” she said, “ an’ mind 
this, fevers ain’t allers misfortin’s, and he hain’t goin’ 
to die. You might’s well have faith while you’re a- 
waitin’ for sight; it’s less tiresome. God brought you 

to W jest at this time, an’ he had a purpose.” 

She kissed Gail and disappeared. 


XXX 


I THOUGHT IT WAS LOVISY 

ET’S send our luggage on home and stop over 



1 j at W for a day or two,” suggested Horace 

Franksin to Tom Rollins as they stood on the deck 
of the ocean liner as she swung into New York harbor. 
“ You’ll like a look at the old town and college, old 
fellow, and might as well get acquainted with what’s 
coming. Think of your being there the year I’m a 
senior ! So close do you tread upon my heels.” 

“ So constantly do you throw away time on me, 
you mean. You’ve lost your first week at the university 
this trip.” 

“ If I’ve been throwing away time the past three 
months, then I’m unacquainted with the value of time,” 
answered Horace. “If any one is to blame for this 
week’s loss, it’s Uncle Burns, but who wants to talk 
of blame ? It has been simply great ! ” 

“ So it has,” assented Tom. “ That uncle of yours — 
ours ” — correcting himself and laughing as he caught 
Franksin’s eye — “ is a big thing.” 

“ Some such proposition as you’ll make yourself one 
of these days. He thinks my ward quite a fellow.” 

“ I’ll never come within a million miles of him,” 
cried Tom, his eyes shining. 

“ There’s just one out about him,” smiled Horace, 
adding mischievously, as Tom sent him an inquiring 
glance, “he has never given me an aunt.” 


361 


362 


GAIL WESTON 


“ Pshaw ! ” Tom’s tone revealed the utter disgust 
such sentiment deserved. “ He has had his work. 
What more does a man want ? ” 

“ I have noticed that though you’ve been working 
at a rattling pace for a youngster you’ve missed a 
certain feminine I could name,” retorted Horace slyly. 

“ Gail ? She’s different. She’d never interfere with 
any man’s work. He’d do it all the better with her 
around.” 

“ And you think her the only specimen of such 
womanhood? I referred to her kind when I bemoaned 
the aunt I never had,” teased the young man. 

“ Her kind ! There is no other of her kind, I tell 
you,” cried Tom impatiently. “ There’s not a girl in 
the world like her.” 

“ Then make up your mind to lose her. Some one 
will find her out and growing green with envy of you — 
end by robbing you. It’s of little use to squirm,” as 
his ward frowned. “ It’s the fate of fortune to be 
envied and of rare things to be gobbled.” 

“ Shut up ! ” snapped Tom. “ The fellow that 
attempts to rob me of her will have his hands full.” 

“Of her?” queried Horace roguishly. “That’s all 
he’d ask, seeing that’s all he’s after.” 

The youth turned on his guardian. “ Talk sense, 
will you ? ” he growled. “ What’s mine’s mine, and she 
is rare whether you believe it or not. Some people 
know it now; everybody’ll know it some day, when I 
place her where she belongs. I wonder why she hasn’t 
written lately ? ” 

“We’ve missed her letters, that’s a fact,” sympa- 
thized Horace, “but there’s really no reason to worry 
over it,” soothingly. “I don’t believe she has been 


I THOUGHT IT WAS LOVISY 363 

gobbled up yet,” smiling broadly as he glanced toward 
the youth. “ When you wrote last we were already 
heading toward home, our address uncertain. It 
wouldn’t be strange if she was waiting for some other 
word before venturing to write or was expecting to 
learn of our arrival. We’re a week ahead of uncle. 
It wouldn’t be surprising if he had some of our letters 
in his pockets which he had forgotten to remail.” 

“ That must be it. I wish I could see her,” with a 
sigh. 

“ Suppose you run home for a day or two before 
going back to school.” 

“ Can’t afford the time. I’ll have to plug now to 
catch up with my class. I’m not sure we should stop 
over at W .” 

“For a single day? What nonsense. Think of the 
time we have saved by cutting loose from Uncle Burns. 
You’ll want to see Ted. I suppose that precious fellow 
is studying hard and working too. Well, he’s bringing 
the man in him to view by the process.” 

It was quite dark when the pair landed at W .” 

Shall we take a carriage or a trolley ? ” asked Horace. 

“ Neither,” was the prompt reply. “ There’s nothing 
to carry but a dress-suit case between us, and I’m sick 
of being carted. I want to use my feet. Make sure 
I can.” 

“ I’m with you,” was the laughing rejoinder. “ We’ll 
put up at the Frat. house to-night. My ! but won’t there 
be something doing when the boys see us? We’ll get 
the glad hand, all right.” 

“We?” questioned Tom. “I’m not so sure of my 
welcome.” 

“ Wait and see, young man. * Love me, love my 


364 


GAIL WESTON 


dog. It’s my Frat. and very likely to be yours. We’ll 
learn where Ted puts up and take a peep at him before 
we sleep.” 

They swung along at a good pace, though Tom was 
unusually silent and moody. What Horace had said 
about Gail earlier in the day — though said from pure 
love of mischief — kept recurring to his memory and 
troubled him. It would be just like some fellow to 
fall in love with his sister and try to carry her off. 

“What’s up, Tom? Have you lost your tongue?” 
His friend’s voice broke in on his meditations. 

“ I’m sorry Gail ever left home,” answered the lad 
irrelevantly. “ Here I’ve been planning to have her 
all to myself as soon as I grew up and had a nice 
home. I want her to have the best, but I want to 
give it to her.” 

Horace laughed. “ Have you lost her ? ” he queried, 
casting a droll look at his companion. “ How long 
since ? ” 

“ Since you put it into my head,” was the impatient 
reply. “ It’s no laughing matter that I can see.” 

“ It wouldn’t be if it were true,” admitted his guard- 
ian ; “ but happily it is not yet, and we’ll hope she 
loves you too well to love anybody else better for some 
years to come. I’d be as sorry as you if the contrary 
was possible.” 

“ A lot you would. You never had her.” 

“Isn’t that hard enough luck without being twitted 
with the fact ? ’ 

Tom did not reply to this and the pair were silent 
as they trudged on together passing block after block 
and at last reaching the resident part of the city, where 
music and light — all the common evidences of home 


I THOUGHT IT WAS LOVISY 365 

life and joy — met their eyes and ears. They had trav- 
ersed this portion of the town only a few minutes when 
Tom halted suddenly before an unpretentious house. 
Somebody was singing within — singing a sweet old 
hymn most tenderly. There was a light — dim, not bril- 
liant — in the room which fronted the street and a win- 
dow let down from the top. Through it the clear 
young voice came distinctly. 

“ How pure a tone ! What feeling ! ” whispered Hor- 
ace as he stopped with face toward the casement. 

“ It is Gail,” was the hoarse reply. 

“ Impossible ! You imagine it.” 

“ It is, I tell you. Nobody else sings like that. Do 
you think I can be mistaken in her voice?” Tom 
dropped the satchel he held at his friend’s feet and 
mounted the outer steps to the entrance of the house. 
Ere Horace could interfere he had touched the bell. 

“ I wish to see Miss Weston,” he said to the maid 
who answered his summons, but before she could reply 
to his demand his sister was beside him. 

“ Oh, Tom ! ” she cried in a tone rapturous but 
guarded. “It is you! I heard your voice. I’ve been 
singing for a sick lady. Wait a moment until I say 
good night and I will join you.” 

She was back in a second, her wrap thrown about 
her shoulders. “ How did you know I was here ? I’ve 
been wondering whether you had reached New York. 
Of course you had heard that Ted was sick?” 

“ Ted sick ! ” Horace as well as Tom echoed the 
young girl’s words. 

He has fever. I am here to nurse him,” Gail ex- 
plained as she placed her hand in the palm Horace 
extended in greeting. 


366 


GAIL WESTON 


“Is he very ill?” 

“ Seriously ; he has not recognized me yet, but the 
doctor thinks he finds signs of encouragement — says he 
has grown no worse for several days. I went over to 
sing for a sick old lady while her nurse took my place 
by Ted’s bed. She thought I needed change, and I 
felt sure she could do more for him than I knew how 
to do.” 

She led them to the shabby boarding-house parlor — 
fortunately unoccupied — her voice full of the pleasure 
of this unexpected meeting. “ When did you get 
home ? ” she asked as they were seated. 

“We arrived at New York this morning — or rather 
noon; sent our baggage on ahead and took rail for 

W ” answered Horace, while Tom sat staring at his 

sister. “We go on again to-morrow — or intended to. 
Is there anything we can do for Ted — or you?” 

“ I think not. Good nursing is what he needs most, 
the doctor says.” 

“ And you have a trained nurse ? ” 

“ No.” A faint tinge of color came to Gail’s pale 
cheek. “ I prefer to nurse him myself. I was sent for 
— he kept asking for me in his delirium. My touch 
seems to soothe him when he is real bad. I think he 
would rather have me.” 

“ No doubt of it, but would there not be plenty for 
you to do even with the aid of a nurse? When does 
the doctor make his evening call ? ” 

“ About eight-thirty. He will be here presently.” 

“ With your permission Tom and I would like to 
wait and hear his report,” said Horace deferentially. 

“ Certainly.” The young girl could not but be con- 
scious of her brother’s peculiar scrutiny, showed signs 


I THOUGHT IT WAS LOVISY 367 

of that consciousness. “ Gail,” he broke out now, “ did 
you meet many young men when you were at work in 
B ?” 

“ No, not many,” smiling at the queer question. 

“ Then — then you haven’t fallen in love with any 
one and promised to marry him ? ’ 

The bluntness of the question, its unexpectedness, 
dismayed the maiden. The color flooded her face as 
she looked at the questioner and laughed. She tried 
to answer him and laughed again, her discomfiture 
swallowed up for the moment in the drollery of the situ- 
ation. She left her chair, walked to the youth’s side 
and took his face between her hands. “ I haven’t met 
any one who is half as dear to me as you are, Tom,” 
she laughed, flushing still deeper. “When I do I will 
let you know.” 

“ See you do,” sighed her brother in evident relief. 
“ Now tell me about Ted. I couldn’t listen to anything 
while I was worrying about that other fellow.” 

Such a burst of laughter as greeted this speech! 
Tom looked at his two companions resentfully, but their 
mirth was infectious ; it swept him away on its current. 
“ I can’t say that I see any reason for laughing,” he 
observed shamefacedly as soon as he could speak. “ I 
should think Ted’s sickness was a serious enough 
business.” 

“ It certainly was until you dragged * that other fel- 
low ’ in,” admitted Horace, much ashamed of his levity, 
yet struggling with the temptation to yield to it again. 

When Doctor Bently arrived the next morning he 
had a trained nurse with him. “ Your brother insisted 
on it last night,” he explained to Gail. “ He was 
afraid that you were overdoing, and I have been afraid 


GAIL WESTON 


368 

you were myself. The fever is nearing its height, and 
our patient will need special care. He will be safest 
with a person who has been trained for this work. I 
advise you to let Miss Lamont take full charge for the 
present while you make up the rest you have lost. 
When he comes to himself you will be in demand.” 

It was Gail who carried word of the new arrival to 
Miss Hines. That lady dropped into a chair when she 
heard it, as if the intelligence had robbed her of all her 
strength. 

“ It’s come ! ” she gasped. 

“ Doctor Bently says Tom insisted on it,” Gail re- 
sponded, though she felt sure that her brother but 
represented Mr. Franksin’s insistency. “ I think it may 
be best. Uncle John urged it through mother, in the 
letter I got yesterday, and the doctor considers it wise 
at least until the fever turns. He ordered me out this 
morning. You owe this visit to the trained nurse.” 

“ It’s come ! ” reiterated Miss Hines, “ an’ I s’pose 
it must be put up with. * What can’t be cured must 
be endured,’ but if that doctor thinks he’s got rid of me 
he’s mistaken. I’ll trust that boy to no other hands 
than my own when the turnin’ pint comes.” 

When Miss Hines made her evening call on the sick 
youth she had a word further for Gail. 

“ Theer’s a prov’dence that shapes our ends,” she 
began, “though ’tain’t allers us that does the rough 
hewin’ of ’em; an’ I guess the Lord’s in a lot of thin’s 
where we don’t sense him at onct. Ennyway, I ain’t 
what you may call sorry that that air nuss’s come. 
She handles the boy kinder’s if she knew how, an’ she 
ain’t so sot on her own notions that she can’t listen 
to other folks’s. He come onexpected to-day, Gail 


I THOUGHT IT WAS LOVISY 369 

Weston, after you were over to our house, an’ that puts 
another face on the sitivation. It’ll hender me some in 
gittin’ over, seein’ he’s in a great to do to git her home 
all of a suddent. He’s been an’ seen the doctor, an’ he 
sez she can be moved mos’ enny time now. But I tell 
him — an’ she unnerstan’s — that I ain’t a-going to think 
of gittin’ orf till that boy’s outer danger. I may think 
of it then, but till then ‘ This rock’ll fly from its firm 
base, as soon as I.’ I didn’t really set out to quote 
po’try, but it’s the fitteenst thin’, is po’try, an’ I larnt 
sich a passel of it when I was a girl it’s allers a-poppin’ 
up, an’ that piece jest ’xactly ’xpresses my sen’ments 
on this occasion. When I am sot, I’m sot.” 

The dreaded day of the fever’s climax came. Miss 
Hines, according to her expectation, sat grimly in the 
sick-chamber throughout the woful hours of the night 
of waiting. Circumstances had conspired to purchase 
her this privilege. The trained nurse, suffering from 
a sick head all day, was sent to bed by Doctor Bently 
himself as the evening’s shadows fell, and Miss Hines 
was installed in her place. Gail crept in and out of 
the room as the interminable hours dragged on, unable 
to rest; and was wakened just as the morning broke — 
from the light sleep into which she had at last fallen — 
by Miss Hines’ voice. 

“ Don’t be skeered,” she whispered. “ There’s a God 
in Isr’l an’ he’s workin’, but the boy’ll want your face 
fust an’ theer’s signs of his wakin’. ’Twon’t do for him 
to see me — an’ don’t you dare to mention me either,” 
she added with fierce emphasis. 

Ted had indeed opened his eyes before Miss Hines 
had hurried to arouse his sister — opened them but for 
a moment, but that moment had revealed to the 
Y 


370 


GAIL WESTON 


experienced woman his return to consciousness. As 
Gail stood over him he opened them again and smiled 
faintly. 

“ It’s you,” he said in a feeble drawl, “ and I thought 
it was Lovisy. Hasn’t she been here? Then I must 
have dreamed it. She looked good.” 

Gail put a soothing draught to his lips and smoothed 
his shorn locks gently. “ Don’t talk, dear,” she said, 
finding it difficult to control her voice. “ Go to sleep 
again, darling.” She touched her lips tenderly to his 
moist brow, and dropping into the chair beside the bed 
gently rubbed his wasted palms while she crooned a 
lullaby, and a gaunt woman in the anteroom across 
the hall fought fiercely with her tears, saying over 
and over: 

“ He sensed me, he sensed me ! Praise the Lord, he 
sensed me ! ‘ I thought it was Lovisy/ God in heaven 

bless the boy ! ‘ She looked good.’ Now I know that 
not a bit of the years of prayin’s wasted.” 

Horace Franksin was now established at college, and 
every one of these anxious days and nights brought 
Gail some reminder of his presence, of his solicitude, 
his thoughtfulness. Lovisa Hines saw him as he 
crossed the street before this morning of crisis was 
yet fully awake, and as she still waged her battle in the 
anteroom she met him at the front door. 

“ Yes, he’s come to himself,” she answered to the 
young man’s anxious inquiries. “ Yes, he’ll live, praise 
the Lord ! I’ve nussed a good many sich cases an’ 
know the signs. But you can step in an’ wait for the 
doctor if you please. He’ll be along soon.” 

Miss Hines was very little in evidence in the days 


I THOUGHT IT WAS LOVISY 


371 


that followed. What she saw of Gail was outside of 
the sick-room. She had surrendered the reins wholly 
to the trained nurse. “ The wust of it’s over,” she said, 
“ so I can kinder drop out. No ; ” as Gail urged that 
she should at least look at her brother. “No; ’tain’t 
good for him to see too many folks. He must be kept 
quiet. You an’ the nuss, with a ’casional look at that 
harnsome young man that comes here, is all he can 
stand jest yit. He aint needin’ me. My turn’ll come 
some day, the Lord willin’ — an’ he is. We’re goin’ orf 
to-morrer. He’s sot, an’ theer ain’t no reason he 
shouldn’t have his way now.” 

The next morning bright and early Miss Hines ap- 
peared to say good-by. “ I sha’n’t say I ain’t a-goin’ to 
miss you, Gail Weston,” she said, tears in her eyes,” 
for I shall; but I’ve had more’n I desarve of you 
a’ready, and feel dirt mean when I think of others 
that hain’t. I shall see you agin, an’ my joy no man 
taketh from me. The devil is big, but we know who 
can master him, an’ I’m trustin’ you to that One among 
other thin’s. Don’t you be s’prised if you git a letter 
from me some day.” 

“ Oh,” cried Gail, “ if you will only write ! You’ve 
been so much to me. How could I have lived through 
these weeks without you. 

“ By havin’ sumbuddy better’n me. But the Lord he 
thought as how my turn’d come. I thank him for it.” 
She kissed Gail twice. “ One of ’em you’re to give 
your brother,” she whispered. “ But mind, it’s to be on 
the sly — he’s not to know about it.” 

Gail watched from her window while the dear old 
invalid was placed in the coach; saw a brisk, upright, 
gray-haired man follow, and waved her hand to Miss 


GAIL WESTON 


372 

Hines, who brought up the rear. She shed tears as the 
carriage rolled away. She felt desolate. But the 
evening brought Horace — who had taken it upon him- 
self to see that Gail had a walk daily — and in his 
coming she forgot all else for the present. 


XXXI 


AT BEECHLANDS 



‘ED gained faster than could have been expected, 


JL and looked forward to his friend’s daily visits 
with nearly as much desire as did his sister. The week 
that followed directly after the departure of the trained 
nurse was one peculiarly enjoyable to the trio. Every 
day brought Horace for at least an hour or two, and 
the flowers, fruit, books, he was ever bringing with him 
furnished endless amusement, profit, and delight to 
those for whom they were purchased. 

That Gail and Horace had at last met and were 
good friends was in itself a joy to Ted. He was not 
surprised — had expected — that Gail would admire his 
chum, but for the genuine admiration he discovered in 
Horace Franksin’s attitude toward his sister he was 
not prepared. It overjoyed him whenever he saw them 
together. 

As for himself he every day found something new 
to appreciate in her. Her delicacy of touch, her taste 
in arranging flowers, and the appointments of the room, 
even the detested medicine table, were a revelation to 
him. Then there was her intellectual relish and insight ; 
her quiet humor and gaiety, especially her marvelous 
gift of song. Strange that he had never known until 
now that she possessed such a talent. He called her 
“ Nightingale ” instead of Gail, declaring she had fairly 
won the change of title, since her voice was in 


373 


374 


GAIL WESTON 


requisition night as well as day in ministering to his 
restlessness. 

And Gail was happy these days, so happy she scarcely 
recognized herself and wondered if she could be one 
and the same with the family caretaker of a few months 
ago. Her brother recovered, these days of renewed 
life for him, of a new and delightful friendship for 
herself, were laden with sweets; especially so since her 
Uncle John had written her to forward all bills — for 
doctor, nurse, board — to himself, enclosing a generous 
check in his letter, and assuring her that he was well 
able to meet these expenses, and counted it a privilege, 
since it relieved his conscience for his long delay in 
coming to his sister’s assistance. He added kind words 
also about Ted’s future, promising to see that the boy 
did not work too hard when he entered college; he 
would look out for him until he was quite strong again. 

Meanwhile Horace had some carefully laid plans — of 
which he had written to his uncle and Tom — concern- 
ing the disposal of the pair in whom his interest now 
centered. He came in one morning, his face bright, a 
huge bunch of English violets in his hands, before the 
invalid had arisen. “ Gail cut his day short on both 
ends,” Ted complained, as Horace took the vacant chair 
by the bedside. 

“ Lazy fellow ! ” he cried, tossing the violets and a 
gay little nod to Gail. “ I’ve brought you news. The 
doctor says I may take you home Saturday.” 

“Home!” Ted’s face fell. “I have all of home I 
need with me here,” he said glancing significantly to 
where Gail sat by the window. “ Besides, I want to get 
back to my books.” 

“ They’re tabooed till the middle term. Doctor 


AT BEECH LANDS 


375 


Bently says so ; but you can stand it, Sargent tells me ; 
he thinks you’ll find no difficulty in catching up with 
your class. I’ve set my heart on taking you home 
with me.” 

“With you?” The girl at the window; looked up 
and smiled at her brother’s change of tone. 

“ Of course. Do you think I am pining to pack you 
off to Greenville? I’m too selfish for that. As it is I 
am divided between two desires — one to have you at 
Beechlands, the other to keep you where I can see 
you every day.” 

“My desires are less complex,” laughed Ted. “Just 
the thought of Beechlands makes me draw a fuller 
breath.” 

“ Good ! And what does Miss Gail say ? ” Horace 
glanced toward the sewer. 

“ I’m wondering if Ted does not need his sister for 
a while longer,” she answered hesitatingly. 

“ I’m sure he does,” cried Horace heartily, “ and just 
as sure that his sister needs Beechlands. Don’t think 
me capable of deliberately planning to rob you, Miss 
Gail. I’ve only been conspiring to steal you both for 
a month. I have written Mrs. Harper — the house- 
keeper — to expect us Saturday, and I am looking 
forward to the pleasure of being your escort.” 

“Ought we not consider mother and Uncle John?” 
ventured the young girl. “ They must be impatient to 
see Ted.” 

“ I don’t want to go home,” said the invalid, his face 
falling. 

“And the doctor assures me the journey to Green- 
ville would be longer than he would at present advise,” 
contributed Horace with alacrity. 


376 


GAIL WESTON 


" How kind you are ! ” exclaimed the maiden in a 
tone that implied, “ You consider everything.” 

“ Kind ! ” broke in Ted. “ Kind ; well, I guess ! When 
you see Beechlands you’ll begin to have some idea 
of how kind ; and when you know Hod as well as I do 
you’ll have learned it’s just like him.” 

Gail was sure she had already learned this latter fact. 
Her frank eyes said as much as they met the young 
man’s smiling ones. A few; days later, as she stood 
with him on the lawn at Beechlands, lost in the con- 
templation of the exquisite scene spread to her view, 
she began — as Ted had prophesied — to take in the full 
measure of their friend’s kindness. 

“So you like it? I’m so glad. It’s my home, Miss 
Gail.” 

“ It is too beautiful,” murmured the girl. “ This Oc- 
tober sunshine sifting through these multi-colored 
leaves makes me feel as though I were lost in fairy- 
land. I did not know earth held a spot so lovely.” 

“ What did I tell you ! ” cried Ted, weak but raptur- 
ous from his nest of pillows in the great hammock on 
the veranda. 

What a month followed! Gail tried to write down 
some of its wonders for the enlightenment of Alice 
and Dolly, but failed miserably. How could she write 
what has never yet been written? If she and Ted 
were happy, Horace seemed doubly so as week after 
week he saw the color grow on the faces of his two 
friends, the joy deepen in two pairs of eyes. Almost 
every Saturday brought him home. He could not stay 
away. There were carriage drives and auto rides and 
delightful rows on the lake — for the days kept warm — 
and long evenings in the old library playing games or 


AT BEECH LANDS 


377 


listening while a rich young voice sang holy hymns and 
quaint old songs — selections from the music another 
voice had once rendered in the same place. 

Week followed week and yet their going away was 
postponed, as Gail believed, because of Dolly’s report 
that the home cottage was undergoing thorough reno- 
vation and enlargement and was scarcely a place for 
the invalid; in fact, as Ted realized, because Horace 
had set his heart on keeping them as long as possible. 
Even after Dolly wrote that everything was complete, 
Horace found an excuse for delay. 

“ Thanksgiving is so near,” he urged, “ and Tom 
and Uncle Burns will be home. You must not leave 
before seeing Tom, and I want you to meet my uncle, 
Miss Gail. You’re to begin at the university after 
the Thanksgiving recess, old fellow,” turning to Ted. 
“ Why not wait and go back with me ? It’s only two 
weeks now to this term’s end.” 

Tom came several days before Thanksgiving, Pro- 
fessor Hildreth only the night before, and especially 
for the occasion, as he was obliged to leave early the 
morning after; but it was a holiday long to be remem- 
bered by the participants in its celebration. Horace 
watched his uncle’s face whenever Gail was near, anx- 
ious to gather from its expression some evidence of his 
approval of this new friend. Evidently the maiden held 
attractions for the grave gentleman. His eyes followed 
her with approbation, as his nephew noted with rapture, 
and he hung about the piano when she sang much as 
Tom did. 

“ You have a rare voice, Miss Gail,” he said Thanks- 
giving evening, after listening to the rendering of an 
old song dear to him in other days. 


378 


GAIL WESTON 


“ That’s what I tell her,” cried Ted, swinging around 
on the piano stool. He had been playing her accom- 
paniments and wondering for the hundredth time how 
it chanced that he had never heard his sister sing until 
after his illness. “ If her voice had only been properly 
cultivated she could sing for the world.” 

“ I am grateful then that it has not been,” said Gail 
flushing. “ I would so much rather sing for my 
friends.” 

Tom clapped in applause of this sentiment, Horace 
looked his approval, Professor Hildredth smiled. 

“ That’s pure cowardice,” laughed Ted. “ Great gifts 
are for great uses. A person owes his best to the world 
— does he not, Professor Hildredth ? ” 

“Ye — es ” — slowly — “to the world for which it was 
made,” answered that gentleman with some ambiguity. 

Tom clapped again. “ Gail has always paid her debts 
as far as her own world is concerned,” he said. “ Not 
a sick person, not a child in Greenville but has had a 
share in her voice, and I’m sure we have nothing to 
kick at here,” he finished boyishly. 

“ I had to get sick to find out she had a voice,” said 
Ted, rather inclined to grumble. “I’m sure I spent 
months in Greenville without discovering it.” 

“ H’sh-sh ! ” whispered Tom mischievously, “ or 
you’ll give yourself away. I told you long ago you 
.were wasting your time on Doll, that Gail was the 
musical member of our family.” 

“ Don’t try to argue with Tom, Ted,” cried their 
sister gaily, coming between them and stroking her 
younger brother’s stubbly locks. “He has inherited 
the combative talents of the family. His porcupine 
quills proclaim it.” 


AT BEECH LANDS 


379 


“ Uncle, isn’t she nice? ” Horace was the questioner 
and the question was propounded as he helped his 
relative into his overcoat early the next morning. 

“ She ! Miss Gail, do. you mean ? ” counterquestioned 
that gentleman, a twinkle in his eye. “ I quarrel with 
your adjective, sir. She is like her voice, rare. Had 
I met her twenty years ago you might have had an 
aunt.” 

“ I’m sorry for you,” said Horace, but the twinkle 
was in his eye now. 

Tom left the same afternoon; Horace, Ted, and Gail, 
were to leave the following Monday, the young lady to 

proceed alone from W to Greenville. The young 

faces grew sober as the hour of parting drew nigh. 
Horace wore a very gloomy air as he walked from the 
post-office, through the season’s first fall of snow, on 
Saturday afternoon, a letter for Gail in his pocket. 
She was going away and she had given Beechlands 
significance by her presence — for the first time it was 
really home. He thought this as he tramped on, 
thought it anew with a quickened pulse as he hung 
his ulster in the hall beside a girl’s hat and wrap. 

He found her on the big fur rug before the library 
fire, her eyes fixed on the cheerful blaze that roared up 
the broad chimney. She sprang up to greet him and 
took the letter he extended eagerly from his hand. 

“ It’s from Dolly. Will you mind if I read it at 
once ? ” 

“Not at all,” he answered, noting the color of her 
cheeks, her lips. It had been good for her to be there 
as well as good for him. As she read he glanced about 
the room, took in all the little evidences of her occu- 
pancy. A bit of sewing with a tiny thimble and a spool 


GAIL WESTON 


380 

of thread lay on a small table in the bay window ; a late 
nosegay in a delicate vase stood beside the book she had 
left open on the big desk. 

“ Alice spent Thanksgiving at home,” she said, not 
looking up. “ They were disappointed not to have Ted, 
and Uncle John wants you to be sure to come to us 
with Ted and Tom at Christmas. The letter is full of 
mysterious hints. Dolly is brimming over with desire 
to show off the wonders of the new home. Well, I 
shall be there soon now,” with the softest of sighs. 

“ Are you glad to go home, Miss Gail ? ” 

“ I ought to be if it’s the next thing to be done,” the 
girl hesitated, “ and it is,” more decidedly. “ But it 
has been very beautiful here; Fve been so happy.” 

“ Oh, have you? You have made me happy by being 
here. I wish you would come back — some day — and 
never go away again. I want you here always.” 

Gail’s eyes — lifted to his face — fell before his ardent 
gaze. She could not doubt his meaning. 

“ I know we are both young,” Horace proceeded 
gravely contemplating the downcast face, “ but I know 
too that I love you better than I love any one or any- 
thing in all the world and always shall. You are so 
innocent, so gifted, and have seen so little of the world, 
I must not take advantage of you; but if you will 
promise now to come to me sometime, and should you 
change your mind by and by, I will try to be generous. 
You like me a little” — he suddenly changed his tone 
to inquire — “ you do already like me a little ? ” 

“ I like you very much,” a timid voice replied. 

“ Oh, do you ? Then you will not think I am trying 
to take advantage of you? You will not be afraid to 
trust me ? ” 


AT BEECH LANDS 


38l 

“ I’ve always believed you to be everything that’s 
good ! I could trust you anywhere — with anything,” 
cried Gail most earnestly. 

“With anything? Would you dare trust me with 
yourself ? ” he questioned eagerly. 

She lifted her eyes swiftly and but for a moment to 
his face. There was something amazed, rapturous, 
awestruck, in the glance. What her eyes met in his 
must have satisfied her. 

“ Yes,” she whispered and, dropping to the rug before 
the fire, buried her face in her hands. He was beside 
her instantly. 

Ted found them thus still upon the rug when he came 
in half an hour later. “ Hullo, you two,” he began, 
“ do you know our first snow-storm is here ? ” 

“ I know something better than that,” answered Hor- 
ace jubilantly. “ I’ve found my heart’s home and my 
home’s heart, and I’ll never lose it again.” 

Ted stared at his friend as if he feared he was de- 
mented. “ What are you giving us ? ” he demanded. 
“ Have you gone luny ? ” 

“ Ask Gail. She has promised to come back to Beech- 
lands some day, Ted, and never go away. Will you 
take me for a brother ? ” 

“Brother!” growled Ted, looking at his sister and 
wringing his chum’s hand unmercifully. “ Do you 
know what you’ve robbed me of, you rascal? — the best 
sister a man ever had. I didn’t think she’d give me up 
so easily.” 

“ I haven’t given you up, dear,” declared Gail, flush- 
ing beautifully, the joy-bird in her throat chirping 
through every word she uttered. “ Horace hasn’t asked 
for a thing except what was already his,” with a shy 


GAIL WESTON 


382 

little glance at her lover. “ It is he who has just been 
giving, giving, and among other things, he has given me 
his promise that he will never ask me to sing for the 
world,” shaking her head gaily at her brother. 

Horace spent his next Saturday with Tom. 

“Well, young man, have you heard from Gail?” he 
inquired as soon as they were alone. 

“ What do you take her for ? Think she’s as mum as 
a clam like yourself ? ” 

“ This is what I get for hurrying to your side at my 
first opportunity ! ” lamented the young gentleman 
merrily. “ Such news can’t be writ, my boy.” 

“Can’t, indeed! Well, when Gail makes a promise 
it is a promise and will be kept ” 

“ Glad to know it,” interrupted Horace. “ She has 
promised me a trifle.” 

“Silly!” laughed Tom. “Didn’t she promise me, 
and in your presence, that she would let me know when 
she found anybody she liked better than me ? ” 

“ She never wrote you that ? ” cried the young man, 
his eyes sparkling. 

“ Next door to it. You might have told a fellow.” 

“And had him circumvent me? Not much. If I’m 
not very wise, I’m wiser than that. Didn’t you give me 
to understand that you would count that man an enemy 
who dared to look her way; that you were reserving 
her for yourself ? ” 

“ Oh, give us a rest! You knew I didn’t mean you.” 

“ How? You made no exception in my favor, at least 
in my hearing.” 

“ I guess not. She’s not exactly the kind of girl a 
fellow’s likely to throw at his best friend’s head. How’d 
I know you had sense enough to appreciate her ? ” 


AT BEECH LANDS 


3 8 3 


“ How indeed ! I’m not proud of my ability in that 
direction. What impresses me is the nerve of the fel- 
low who dared not only to appreciate, but appro- 
priate her. You might at least congratulate him.” 

“ Haven’t had time,” grinned Tom. “ I’ve used up all 
I had to spare in congratulating myself.” 

“ Yourself! That’s rich! Where do you come in?” 
“ Right here. I’ve got Gail now fast for life. What’s 
yours is mine, I take it. Guardy, you’re worthy of her, 
and I don’t know another fellow who is. Really worthy 
of Gail ! What can I say better than that ? ” 

“ You can’t say better. If you try you’ll spoil it, and 
it is good to hear even if it isn’t true.” 


XXXII 


A COMMON ENGINEER 

D OLLY met Gail at the station and hurried her 
home. 

“ I’ve packed them all off,” she confessed, “ didn't let 
them know you were coming to-day. The snow gave 
me a great excuse for getting Uncle John to take 
mother for a sleigh ride. I wanted the house to myself 
so that I could show it off. Isn’t that a dandy bay win- 
dow; and just do look at the parlor furnishings. I’m 
to have a piano too; it’s ordered and on its way. 
Thank goodness, I’m somebody’s favorite at last. You 
see, I discovered Uncle John and look like mother. 

“ This is uncle’s room. He had it finished for mother 
so she wouldn’t have to go up and downstairs, but she 
was afraid to sleep downstairs alone, so he appropriated 
it. Look at the dining-room! Would any one ever sup- 
pose that was our old kitchen? And this new kitchen, 
isn’t it great? No, you mustn’t stop to investigate that 
pantry now — you’ll have a chance for that later — I want 
you to take a peep at the chambers before they get 
home. Uncle John says he isn’t rich, but I guess he has 
more than he lets on. Every single room has been 
painted, papered, whitened, and furnished, besides the 
finishing off of Tom’s old room and the addition of two 
new chambers over the L. 

“ How do you like my room ? I had it all done in 
rose — that’s my color. Here’s your room. I knew 

384 


A COMMON ENGINEER 


385 


you’d rather be alone, so Allie and I will camp together. 
Isn’t that a cute brass bedstead ? Do you see the book- 
shelves in the corner? Oh, I remembered all your 
little weaknesses. You just take off your cloak and hat 
and fix yourself a bit. I’m afraid any minute may bring 
them now and you must look your prettiest. I don’t 
have to ask about Ted. You’d not be here if he wasn’t 
all right.” 

“ He and Horace and Mr. Thompson are to occupy 
rooms together at college, one sitting-room and three 
chambers,” said Gail. “ I went through them this 
morning and I had a nice chat with Mr. Thompson.” 

“ You’ve had a perfectly lovely time, I suppose,” 
Dolly sighed rather enviously. 

“ Indeed I have.” Gail stood before the pretty dress- 
ing-case and let down her luxuriant hair. “ How 
beautiful everything is,” she went on. “ I feel so grate- 
ful to Uncle John.” 

“ We all do,” began Dolly — then cried suddenly — 
“Gail Weston, what is that on your finger? — the en- 
gagement finger too — I believe it is a diamond ! ” 

“It is,” assented Gail. “Isn’t it ridiculous? But 
nothing else would satisfy Horace.” 

“ You don’t mean to say that you’re engaged, and to 
Horace Franksin?” exclaimed Dolly in amazement. 

“At least I imagine I am,” laughed her sister, a 
lovely pink tingeing her cheeks. “ I know it seems too 
good to be true. He wants to see you, Dolly, and I 
want you to see him. You can’t help loving him. He’s 
the handsomest and the best young man this world 
holds.” 

“ Of course you think so,” assented Dolly, “ you 
ought to, and he has been good to Tom and all of you. 
z 


386 


GAIL WESTON 


He may be the handsomest man in the world too,” 
slowly, “ I can’t say as to that, but the best — well, I 
have my doubts.” She had scarcely finished this speech 
when she ran to the head of the stairs to listen. “ I’ll 
be back in a minute ; don’t you stir till I come for you,” 
she cautioned before she disappeared over them. 

If Dolly’s hearing was acute, Gail’s was not deficient. 
.Before the mirror arranging her hair the sound of 
sleigh-bells caught her attention and drew her to the 
window. There stood a strange gentleman helping her 
mother from a sleigh, while Pet pranced up and down 
the sidewalk and Ben sat proudly holding the reins. 
The watcher’s eyes lingered about the manly form; 
this must be good, kind Uncle John. She had just 
adjusted the last hairpin when Dolly returned. 

“ I’ve had the first of you, thanks be to myself,” she 
exulted. “ Now it’s mother’s turn. She’s crazy to in- 
troduce you to uncle. You’ll be surprised to see what a 
lady of leisure she makes, as also her pride in this house, 
its furnishings, and ‘ my brother, Mr. John Allen.’ Well, 
you’ll see for yourself.” 

“ This is Gail, John, poor Theodore’s only daughter,” 
Mrs. Rollins said in introduction. The big, bluff gentle- 
man drew the maiden close, kissed her, then held her off 
for a kindly scrutiny. “ I’d have known her for a 
Weston anywhere — or rather for a Sercross,” he de- 
clared. “ She’s the dead image of her Grandmother 
Weston.” 

“ So she is.” Mrs. Rollins spoke slowly as if weigh- 
ing the matter as she looked her daughter over critic- 
ally. “ So she is, though I never noticed it before. 
So Theodore decided not to come home at all ? ” 

“ It was so near the opening of the new college term 


A COMMON ENGINEER 


387 

— Ted’s entrance term — and both Tom and Professor 
Hildreth coming home for Thanksgiving, that Horace — 
Mr. Franksin — thought it best we should remain,” 
stammered Gail rather incoherently under her mother’s 
severe gaze. “The journey back and forth to Green- 
ville would have been trying to Ted in his condition,” 
she added. 

“ And of course my desires are not to be considered 
beside those of Mr. Franksin,” began Mrs. Rollins, 
when Dolly made a diversion. 

“ I guess you’ll think not if you’ll look at Gail’s fin- 
ger. Hold it up, Gail, or must I help you ? ” dashing to 
her sister’s side, catching the slender hand and lifting it 
up triumphantly. “ Not everybody who has a prospec- 
tive son-in-law can boast of one able to place such a 
ring as that on his affianced’s finger, mother,” she cried. 

“ Dolly ! how can you ? Mother will receive a letter 
from Mr. Franksin to-morrow, then she will under- 
stand.” 

But Mrs. Rollins understood enough to be suddenly 
seized with an admiring deference of her oldest daugh- 
ter. “ Gail, my dear daughter, are you engaged ? and 
to Mr. Franksin? John, Mr. Franksin is the wealthy 
young gentleman of whom I told you, who is educating 
our Tom.” She held Gail’s hand in her own now and 
was inspecting the ring with tearful reverence. 

“ Yes, John,” she went on, changing her glance from 
the jewel to its wearer, “yes, I see you are right. Gail 
looks like her Grandma Weston and her Greatgrandma 
Sercross. Blood will tell, and Mr. Franksin was wise 
enough to discover it.” 

From that hour the importance of “My daughter, 
Gail,” was fully established with this mother. Not once 


GAIL WESTON 


388 

thereafter did she lapse into calling the maiden Abby. 
Her estimation of this distinguished member of her 
family grew when the letter arrived from Horace ask- 
ing for her daughter’s hand; it waxed still stronger 
when an epistle written by Professor Hildreth arrived 
later ; it reached its climax when the handsome and dis- 
tinguished-looking young suitor came to visit them dur- 
ing the Christmas holidays accompanying Ted and Tom. 

“ Really,” Mrs. Rollins’ voice had something of awe 
in it as she addressed her brother the evening of the 
arrival as they sat alone, the children in bed, the young 
people gone to call on Ruth, “ really, John, Gail has 
done wonderfully well. Few girls of wealth and culture 
have such prospects at her age. She is barely twenty.” 

“ Few girls of any kind deserve such prospects at 
any age,” asserted the brother stoutly. “ I tell you 
what, Maria, you’ve done well with your children. I’m 
proud of them and of you. Not many mothers have as 
handsome and as well-behaved a lot as you have. You’ve 
done well.” 

“ I’ve done my best, John,” answered Mrs. Rollins 
humbly, yet with a touch of self-complacency in her 
voice. 

Gail’s affianced was not only a revelation to the 
mother of this family, but to her daughters as well; 
even Alice being filled with wonder at her sister’s lack 
of embarrassment in his presence. As for Dolly she 
was in what she called “ a state of high bewilderment.” 
“ I feel like the ugliest specimen of low-down, no-ac- 
count white trash when his lordship is around,” she 
confessed. “Not that he puts on a particle of airs — he 
couldn’t — but because he’s he.” 

“ Is he always like that ? ” she queried one day as 


A COMMON ENGINEER 


389 

the three girls watched Ted and Horace go up over the 
hill arm in arm as she fixed her gaze particularly on 
the latter. 

“ Like what,” smiled Gail. 

“ Oh, so elegant, stunning, etc., etc.,” answered the 
younger sister. 

“ He has always been just what he is now since I 
have known him,” was the reply, a note of tender pride 
in her girlish voice. 

“ And you — Gail Weston — how dared you even look 
in his direction ? ” 

“ I didn’t,” smilingly. “ It was he who looked my 
way.” 

When Alice was graduated from the normal school 
she had a call to teach at Unity; and, though Uncle 
John urged her to take a year of rest, was determined 
to respond to it. She guessed who was behind the 
call, for Unity was the town where the Rev. Jacob 
Thompson lived and Rob’s small brothers were among 
her pupils. 

She saw little of Rob himself while there, since he 
was pursuing his college course and had no money to 
spare for home trips. This, he informed her by letter, 
was the only reason he did not share the Thanksgiving 
dinner to which she was invited by his parents. “ To 
know you are there is the next best thing to being there 
myself,” he dared to add. Her school closed two days 

after his brief visit to his home, en route for B and 

his summer’s work. The pair traveled as far as that 
city together, Alice going on from there alone. Per- 
haps it was not strange that she should ask Rob to 
spend a few days at Greenville before going back 


390 


GAIL WESTON 


to college; nor altogether surprising that he should 
accept the invitation. 

So it happened that Dolly’s long-time dream came 
true one afternoon as she waited at the station, and a 
tall young man did alight from an incoming train and 
stride straight toward her. She felt herself turn hot 
and then cold as she watched his advance, fearing her 
eyes must be deceiving her, for Alice had said nothing 
to her of the expected visitor — only Gail had heard of 
his coming. 

“ Miss Dorothea ! ” Rob’s warm grasp proclaimed 
him genuine flesh and blood. “ Miss Dorothea, this is 
delightful! yet I dare not flatter myself that you are 
here looking for me, seeing I got off two days earlier 
than I expected and came right on unannounced. I 
hope it will not make much difference to Miss Alice 
since it will enable me to give an extra day to my 
mother.” 

“Alice! Was Alice expecting you?” exclaimed 
Dolly, ready to cry. Why should he come to visit 
Alice? Suddenly his long-ago words concerning Gail 
came back to her memory. Ah, she understood ! Allie 
,was only a blind, he had come to see Gail. Well, he 
couldn’t have Gail, thank goodness ; but what was there 
about that girl to attract such men ? 

“ Yes, Miss Alice was kind enough to invite me to 
pass a few days here before going home,” Rob an- 
swered to Dolly’s surprised query. “ But it couldn’t 
have meant as much to her as to me, for it seems she 
hasn’t said a word to you about it, while I have written 
the news to everybody I know — mother, Ted, Franksin, 
the whole crowd. Well, I hope you are glad to see 
me and I’m sure of a welcome from Miss Gail.” 


A COMMON ENGINEER 


391 


“ Gail’s engaged,” announced Dolly with the air of 
one who is bound to tell the truth whomever it may 
hurt. 

“ And to the dearest fellow in the universe, and the 
only one who could ever deserve her,” assented Rob to 
Dolly’s confusion. “ I count on being doubly welcome 
to her since I am Hod’s bosom friend.” 

Alice was not at home when the pair reached the 
house, but Gail was. “ Mother,” she said in intro- 
duction, “ this is our friend, Mr. Thompson. You re- 
member Mr. Thompson spent a Sabbath with us nearly 
two years ago.” 

“ My ! my ! was it two years ago ? ” sighed Mrs. 
Rollins. “ How time does fly ! You look much the 
same, Mr. Thompson. I don’t see that you have grown 
any,” looking up and down Rob’s six full feet. 

“ I haven’t dared to,” answered Rob, his eyes twink- 
ling. 

“ Here comes Uncle John,” cried Dolly at this mo- 
ment, starting for the door. She kissed the new-comer 
and smoothed his hair as she drew him into the room 
and toward Rob. 

“ I am very glad to meet you, sir,” said the youth 
as he shook hands with Mr. Allen, “ though I’m bound 
to say you received a much warmer welcome at your 
coming than I did at mine,” with a mischievous glance 
at Dolly. “ Miss Alice has told me about her Uncle 
John. I believe you found your sister through her? ” 

“ Her and this Dolly of mine,” >vas the fond reply as 
the gentleman patted his favorite’s golden crown and 
stooped to kiss the face that had flushed at Rob’s 
allusion. 

Merry days followed and happy ones too. Rob fitted 


392 


GAIL WESTON 


immediately into the cottage household and everybody 
seemed to open the heart to him naturally, even Mrs. 
Rollins, who questioned him about his chum’s wealth 
and estate. Uncle John was soon genuinely interested 
in the young man and talked to him much about his 
future. 

“ So you have decided to become a civil engineer ? ” 
Mr. Allen said, as the family was gathered together in 
the sitting-room one cloudy afternoon. 

“ That’s what I’m fitting for,” was the prompt reply. 

“ A common engineer ! ” cried Dolly, indignant that 
this man, capable of loftiest position, should choose 
what she termed “ common work.” She had no con- 
ception what the term “ civil engineer ” covered or of 
the wide opportunities, the varied experiences, the 
splendid possibilities it held, that wooed so brave a 
spirit as that of Robert Thompson to the choice of 
such a life-work. “ A common engineer ! ” 

“ No, an uncommon engineer, I hope, Dolly,” Rob 
answered smiling. “What have you to object to my 
profession, sweet angel of the kitchen? Am I not big 
enough for it ? ” 

“ Big enough ! You — you ought to make something 
worth while of yourself,” she cried indignantly. “ I’m 
ashamed of you, Rob Thompson.” 

“ That’s because you don’t understand it,” said Rob. 

“ I understand enough,” she answered passionately. 
“ I thought you a man of ambition.” 

“ What would you like me to make of myself ? ” he 
asked seeing she was so much in earnest, “ a minister 
like Ted and my father?” 

“ No, you’d only keep the people laughing and that 
wouldn’t be proper.” 


A COMMON ENGINEER 393 

“ Right you are. What then ? Shall I study law with 
Horace ?” 

“ I’m not just sure that’d exactly fit you,” answered 
the girl slowly, looking at him with serious eyes. “ But 
you’d be just the thing for a doctor. “ You’d cheer 
people up.” 

“ But who’d cheer me up if I had to spend my time 
among the sick and dying ? ” queried the youth. “ Have 
you no consideration for me, Dolly ? ” 

“ Well,” the girl sighed. “ There’s teaching — a pro- 
fessorship — you know.” 

“You’re joking — you’re never in earnest! I’d flirt 
with the pretty girls and box with the boys and where 
would the discipline come in? You’ll have to try again, 
Dolly.” 

“ Haven’t you some special talent ? ” 

“Not the first sign of one. I might pose for some 
sculptor or sit for my portrait to decorate some art 
gallery, that’s as near as I could come to art. The fact 
is I’m commonplace, Dolly, and am only fit to tackle 
hard things. I like a row. The safest place for me 
will be .where I can use my surplus energy on nature — 
give her a black eye instead of my fellows. Now cut- 
ting tunnels through mountains or bridging a chasm 
has charms to soothe my savage breast even in pros- 
pect. Just the thought of forcing old mother nature 
to reveal the beauties and bounties she reserves for 
the daring sets my blood humming. I’m common, my 
dear, and common work calls me.” 

“ But think of the college education you’re throwing 
away,” mourned Dolly. “ So much study gone to waste 
and the years and money you’ve put into it.” 

Rob threw back his head and laughed. “ Are you of 


3 94 


GAIL WESTON 


the same mind, Alice ? ” he asked, turning to the maiden 
who sat at the window sewing. “ Am I hopelessly 
common ? ” 

A smile was his only reply, but Dolly did not cease 
to bewail his fate. Ted, Tom, Horace, all headed to- 
ward some great future, and this young man, the peer 
of the best, satisfied with such an ignoble ambition. 

“ You don’t know what you’re talking about,” Alice 
declared stoutly. “ There could scarcely be a nobler 
calling for a strong, brave man.” But Dolly scoffed at 
the idea : “ That’s as much as you know either about 
it or Rob,” she answered loftily. 

“ Everybody has been envying me,” said the young 
man the afternoon before his departure. “ Here’s Ted,” 
referring to a letter in his hand, “ thirsting for my 
blood because I got here a few days before him. He 
forgets that I have to go so soon and he can stay until 
college opens.” 

“ Why can’t you stay too ? ” Gail asked the question 
Alice dared not put. “ It will make it pleasanter for us 
all. Horace is coming, you know.” 

“ Then you won’t miss me,” laughed Rob. “ You 
forget that the little mother wants a peep at her boy — 
such a good mother too. Ask Alice if you doubt my 
word.” Rob had dropped the prefix before the names 
of all the girls during the familiarity of these days. 
“ I should like to be here with the other fellows, but I 
imagine I’ve got the best of it being the only masculine 
around.” 

“ Ruth’s coming to-morrow,” volunteered Dolly. 
“You ought to see her. She’s worth seeing, a real 
beauty.” 

Rob laughed. “ I’m not expecting to see anything 


A COMMON ENGINEER 


395 


more satisfying than present company,” he said bowing 
gaily to each of the girls. “ Yet if anything could 
tempt me to stop over it would be the prospect of see- 
ing Miss Banscombe. I’ve wanted to meet her for years 
and it’s Ted’s fault. When he joined Hod and me after 
his first visit to Greenville, he described her to us. His 
eloquence was so moving that Horace entered her name 
and address in his pocket memorandum. After he met 
her a year ago I asked him if he was disappointed in 
her. He said no, but he had seen some one nearer his 
ideal. When he reported his engagement to me after 
last Thanksgiving recess I guessed the honor must lie 
between these two paragons and asked him which had 
won out, Miss Ruth or his ideal ? ‘ My ideal/ he said. 

‘ Gail has been that ever since I met her at B / ” 

Rob smiled as he glanced at Gail’s flushing face. 

“ At B ! ” cried Dolly and Alice in a breath. 

“ Did Mr. Franksin meet you when you were at B ? ” 

“ Yes,” answered their sister briefly, “ we had a 
chance meeting, but no one has heard of it until now.” 
She said no more, but there was a radiancy about her 
for the rest of the evening that all noticed, though per- 
haps Rob was the only one of them that divined its 
cause. “ She is so modest she wonders how she could 
have impressed Horace so much,” he thought. “ She 
will never know that she is queen in her own right and 
that her kingdom is the hungry heart of mankind.” 

Tom came the next morning before Rob had left. 
“ I’m ahead of Guardy and Ted for once ! ” he exclaimed, 
as he kissed his sisters, “ and meant to be. I’m bound 
to have twenty-four hours of you, Gail, before Horace 
gets here. Guess who came with me on the train? 
Ruth Banscombe. I’ve promised to go over to the 


396 


GAIL WESTON 


squire’s for her by and by, she’s so afraid Rob will get 
off before she meets him. Oh, but isn’t she stunning! 
Talk about roses and all that sort of thing — they’re 
not in it with Ruth! She’s as satisfying as a whole 
summerful of posies and robins.” 

“ Hear, hear ! ” cried Rob, while Dolly inquired in 
an aggrieved tone if he had totally forgotten his twin. 
“ If I’m not a whole summerful of posies and robins, I 
ought at least to be a gardenful,” she said. 

“ You’re all right, Doll,” answered her brother sooth- 
ingly. “I haven’t a doubt you’ll be an orchardful to 
some fellow one of these days. Rob, you’ll have to take 
the midnight train or wait till morning. I passed my 
word to detain you till eight-thirty if I found you still 
here. Ruth’s planning some sort of a shindig between 
now and then.” 


XXXIII 

dolly's folly and its cure 

I T was after the pleasant social occasion at Squire 
Banscombe’s that Tom had denominated a “ shin- 
dig,” and while Rob and Alice were walking home to- 
gether — the other members of the party having gone 
on ahead — that Rob broke forth : 

“ If I hadn’t a snub nose, Alice, and didn’t intend to 
demean myself and my friends by becoming a ‘ com- 
mon engineer,’ as Dolly so aptly puts it, I’d ask you to 
share my degeneracy and my wanderings one of these 
days.” 

The maiden’s heart gave such a leap it sent a tide 
of crimson to her face. Her answer was totally out of 
character with her usual self, quiet as were her voice 
and manner. “ Do you think it quite fair to punish me 
for your own shortcomings, Rob ? ” 

“ Allie ! ” The young man came to a halt in the 
road. “ What an altogether satisfactory little body you 
are,” he added as he scanned her face closely. “No 
doubt about my having been born under a lucky planet, 
snub or no snub,” with a laugh, as he tucked her arm 
through his own and walked on. 

“ I have rights in this family now and must be re- 
spected by its every member, Dolly,” was his first an- 
nouncement as he strode into the house ahead of his 
companion and confronted the “ angel of the kitchen,” 
as he had dubbed Dorothea. 


397 


398 


GAIL WESTON 


“ Rights in this family ! ” echoed Dolly. “ I guess 
so.” Then catching a glimpse of her sister’s telltale 

face, “ Alice Rollins, you haven’t really ” She 

stopped short to run and kiss the blushing girl. “ I 
believe this is the second sensible thing you have done 
in your life, Rob,” she went on, addressing the young 
man and blushing at thought of what the first was. 

It was sensible in Rob — Allie was exactly suited to 
him, Dolly’s better self admitted this as she went quietly 
off to bed presently while the family gathered around 
the happy pair. But there was a big pain in her poor, 
little heart, as she admitted it, that she thought she must 
carry all the rest of her life and that quite overwhelmed 
her. She lay in a stupor of despair at first, then wept 
copiously and had but just quieted when Alice came up 
to prepare for bed. 

Absorbed in her own joy, the young girl had no 
thought of her sister, had failed to miss her from the 
gathering below. She stood now with happy face be- 
fore the mirror thinking such glad, glad thoughts. One 
glance at that face stirred the troubled waters of Dolly’s 
soul anew, and she buried her own in the pillow to 
stifle the sobs that began again. Some people could be 
happy. 

A long-drawn sigh presently drew the gentle dream- 
er’s attention. She hurried to the bed and stooped over 
it. “What is the matter, Dolly?” she asked tenderly. 

“ Nothing,” came in a muffled voice from the pillow, 
and Alice placed her hand upon the tumbled hair. 
“ How hot your head is,” she exclaimed. “ Does it 
ache, dear ? ” 

“ I — I — I don’t know,” answered Dolly disconso- 
lately. “ My hear — rt’s so bad I — I — can’t tell.” 



“Absorbed in her own joy, the young girl 
had no thought of her sister 

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dolly's folly and its cure 399 

“ Your heart,” cried Allie in amazement. “ Oh, no, 
dear, not that. You are only a little girl and can’t 
know what the heartache is yet.” 

“ There — there’s only fifteen months between us,” 
sobbed Dolly,” and — and I feel ages older than you. 
I guess it isn’t age that — that makes heartache, Allie 
Rollins.” 

Alice smiled, in a slightly superior, grown-up-sister 
fashion. “ No, it isn’t age or anything else that you 
are acquainted with,” she said patting the pretty head. 
“ You must be happy, dear, for my sake. I’m so happy 
to-night I want everybody else to be.” 

“ If you knew Rob Thompson as well as I do you 
might say you were happy,” sobbed the younger sister, 
“ but you’ll never do that.” 

Alice smiled again, still in a superior fashion. “ What 
do you know about Rob that I do not?” she asked 
playfully. 

“ More than I can tell — more than anybody can ever 
tell,” was the excited reply, and Alice lifted her chin a 
bit proudly and went back to the mirror and her hair- 
brush. 

“ I did not know you were so intimately ac- 
quainted with Mr. Thompson,” she said rather loftily. 
“ I fail to understand now where you found opportunity 
for such acquaintance.” 

“ I guess I spent a winter in the same city with him 
once — the year I was at B ” 

“The year you were at B ” Alice turned in 

surprise to confront her sister. 

“ Yes. He was with Horne & Onglas that year.” 

“ So he was, he has told me that. Strange he did not 
mention having met you then.” The color in the young 


400 


GAIL WESTON 


lady’s cheeks burned hotly. She turned back to the 
mirror. 

“ Strange ! ” sniffed Dolly. “ That’s all you know 
about it. If you knew Rob Thompson as well as I do 
you wouldn’t think it strange.” 

“ Indeed ! ” Alice was very busy about her hair. 

“ Indeed and yes. I guess I could tell you something 
about him that would open your eyes.” 

“ Indeed ! ” came again from the white-clad figure, 
then, without a glance at the bed or its occupant, Alice 
threw a wrapper about her form and turned to Gail’s 
chamber. 

Rob was rather surprised at the reception he re- 
ceived from his affianced in the morning; he was more 
surprised as the day wore on. “ What have I done to 
vex you, Mousie ? ” he asked as they were left alone 
for a moment together. 

“ I don’t know. I should feel better if I did know of 
just what you are guilty,” was the surprising reply. 

Rob looked amazed, but far from crestfallen. His 
eyes danced. “ I must have an enemy in hiding some- 
where,” he laughed. “ Tell me where he is that I may 
vanquish him ? ” 

“ Perhaps you find the situation amusing,” said Alice 
with dignity, “ but I do not. Dolly was crying her eyes 
out about you last night and assures me she can tell me 
things about you if she wishes.” 

“ Dolly ! ” Rob’s honest face flushed hotly — why 
must he always be blushing like a girl ! He took hold 
of himself by both hands. “ Don’t let the green-eyed 
monster get after you, dear,” he said jocosely. “Tears 
and incoherencies are never indications of love. You 
must not tell me — I refuse to be told — that two charming 


dolly's folly and its cure 401 

young ladies are in love with me at one and the 
same time. That's more than even I am able to bear 
up under.” 

His companion did not laugh or even smile. “ You 
need not fear,” she said severely. “ I assure you that 
two young ladies will not be in love with you at one 
time.” Then she swept from the room. 

“ Really,” muttered Rob dubiously, “ this is a scrape ! 
I believe I'll go and shake Dolly and get even with her. 
Silly child ! But perhaps the poor little girl was living 
over that old experience. It was rough on her, and 
this — well, this is rather rough on me. If she had only 
spoken out — this mystery business plays the dickens 
with things generally. My, but didn’t that little girl 
put on the tragedy queen though ! I didn’t think it 
was in her. There’s a drop of comfort in every cup, 
but I wouldn’t advise you to drain this, Rob, without 
a kick.” 

Ted arrived that afternoon which made a diversion, 
but Allie went to bed before supper with a sick head. 

“ She didn’t seem well last night,” worried Gail. 
“ She came into my bed, but did not sleep much. I 
wanted to get up and do something for her, but she 
wouldn’t let me. I hope’s it’s nothing serious.” 

“ Nothing that you can’t cure,” prophesied Rob cheer- 
fully, glancing at Dolly, who hid her flushing face be- 
hind the tea-urn. “If Ted’ll excuse you, I’d like to take 
a walk with you after the table is cleared,” he whis- 
pered as they arose from supper. “ I need somebody 
and, as mother isn’t here, must trouble you.” 

The young lady cast him a quick glance. “ Is it 
about Allie?” she asked in a low voice, and went for 
her hat as he nodded in assent. 

2 A 


402 


GAIL WESTON 


Ted started with them, but left them before long at 
Gail’s suggestion that Dolly would feel left out at home 
alone. He caught a glimpse of his younger sister, 
looking from the sitting-room window, as he came 
down over the hill and waved his hand to her. Though 
she answered him it was not merrily, and something 
in her appearance struck him as he entered the room. 

“Alone?” he queried. “Where are mother and 
Uncle John?” 

“ Mother has run into a neighbor’s, and Uncle John 
is asleep in his chair as usual when there is nobody to 
play games with him. He’s in there if you want him,” 
pointing to the lighted parlor. 

“ I don’t want him, I want you. Isn’t this famous, 
Dolly; this having two chums for brothers? I was 
never more surprised than when Gail told me on my 
arrival of Allie’s engagement. I’m sorry I haven’t 
another chum for you, but I may find one before I’m 
through college.” 

“ Don’t trouble yourself. There’s only one man in 
the world for me.” 

“ Or for any other true woman. Have you found 
him, Dolly?” 

“ No; Allie has found him.” 

“What! You’re not in love with Rob? Two of 
you can’t have him,” laughing uneasily. 

“ But two of us can love him, I suppose ? ” answered 
the girl with dignity. “ My love will not harm him.” 

“ Nor do you any good. Turn your attention else- 
where, little sister.” Ted went to the window where 
Dolly still stood, and smoothed her bright crown caress- 
ingly. She turned swiftly and, throwing her arms 
about his neck, burst into tears. 


dolly's folly and its cure 403 

“ Why, Dolly/’ exclaimed the young man, much 
troubled, “ surely it isn’t so bad as this ? ” 

“ So bad and so good,” she sobbed. “ I’d rather love 
him and lose him, than love anybody else and marry 
him. I suppose it was for your sake he saved me, Ted, 
but I’ve worshiped him ever since. He was so strong, 
and brave, and true that night and treated me like a lady 
and not like the silly, wicked girl I was. He shielded, 
and pitied, and laughed at me — and at himself too — 
as if it was all a lark, and we two foolish children in- 
stead of a naughty girl and a brave man. He’s a Chris- 
tian, a real one. I felt it that night — I’ve never been 
able to get away from it. He’s the kind God loves and 
uses when he needs a man; the kind too that never 
will know how good and wonderful he is.” Dolly’s 
breath came as fast as her words. 

Ted seated himself, his sister on his knee, his arm 
about her. “ I don’t know what you mean or what 
Rob did for you for my sake, Dolly, but he is all you 
say and more. I know it and have known it for years. 
But I hope you do not love him as you think, for God 
has other sons, dear — sons as brave and good as Rob, 
I hope, and I don’t like to hear you call my little fair- 
haired sister names,” again patting the golden head. 

“ Ted,” whispered Dolly, “ what I’ve said of myself 
isn’t a circumstance to what I’d have said of any other 
girl who did what I did. But I wasn’t wicked, I was 
only silly, and French Onglas flattered me and made me 
believe he loved me and made me promise to run away 

with him ” The girl stopped in her recital for her 

brother was holding her too close for further words. 

“ Dolly, Dolly ! Not French Onglas ! ” he gasped. 
“ You did not run off with French Onglas? ” 


404 


GAIL WESTON 


“No, I didn’t,” she whispered, her face in her 
brother’s neck. “ I couldn’t. Rob ran away with me 
instead and brought me home to Gail. I was awful mad 
with him and called him names, and he was funny and 
kind, treated me like a child, he ” — with a sudden burst 
of tears — “ treats me like a child yet. He doesn’t know 
how I hate the very thought of French Onglas and 
how I adore him.” 

“ Tell me all about it,” said Ted. “ Every bit of it, 
Dolly,” and she did. 

“ There, now you know what a wicked girl I’ve been 
— I’ve told you,” she said with shame yrtien the story 
was done. 

“ But you do not know how wicked I have been be- 
cause it is beyond my telling,” answered the young man 
gravely. “ But the One who knows it best refuses to 
remember it against me and loves me in spite of it.” 
Gently he changed the maiden’s position from his knee 
to her knees and dropped beside her. The prayer he 
lifted was touchingly simple and tender and, with her 
hands in his, Dolly Rollins that same hour laid all of 
her sin and sorrow upon the heart of the One abun- 
dantly able to pardon and comfort. 

Gail went from her “ good night ” to Rob straight to 
her chamber. Allie was not asleep. “ I’ve come to tell 
you a story,” said the elder sister, and, without pre- 
amble, repeated the tale of Dolly’s deliverance. Long be- 
fore she was through Alice was weeping soft, glad tears. 

“ I hope Dolly does not love Rob,” she said, when 
the speaker paused. 

“ She does not,” answered Gail positively. “ There 
was a time I feared she did, but since I’ve seen her 


dolly’s folly and its cure 405 

with him I know better. She is a sentimental child 
and doubtless thinks she ought to love him, but Rob has 
no idea of her feeling. He thinks the remembrance of 
the past disturbed her last night.” 

“ Isn’t he good ? ” sighed Alice. 

“ Most truly good, and I think you ought to tell 
him you know he is before he goes to bed. You’ll find 
him alone in the parlor.” 

“ Dolly,” said Ted that night, as he left her at her 
chamber door, “you do not love Rob, remember that. 
He is your brother and benefactor, no more. Promise 
me you’ll never allow any other thought of him from 
this hour.” 

“ I promise,” said Dolly. “ I’ve got some one else 
now — some one that’s my own — I’ve always wanted that 
— and ” — she drew her brother close — “ and I’ve got 
you. Oh, how I love you,” hugging him. 

“The Lord bless you,” answered Ted huskily. He 
prepared for bed, a great joy at his heart where dis- 
appointment had held a place one short hour ago. He 
had come to Greenville to see Ruth Banscombe and she 
had flitted away again. “ God knew I came to gather 
my first sheaf in my own home,” he thought exultantly. 
“ That was his purpose in my coming.” 

As he lay there waiting for Rob, he went back to the 
day when first he visited his home — when Dolly met 
him at the door. How self-satisfied, self-absorbed he 
had been. Was he sorry to-night — looking over all the 
way he had been led — that he had cut loose from his 
grandfather’s home when he did? There was a pang 
yet at the remembrance of his grandparents, but was 
he sorry? Only for the sin that had marred the years 
— nothing else. 


406 


GAIL WESTON 


He was nearly asleep when Rob came to bed. “ Old 
fellow, I owe you more than I can say,” he began, 
catching at the hand that was turning down the bed- 
clothes. 

“ How now ? What gold mine are you prospecting 
that I put you on the track of, Ted?” questioned Rob 
gaily. 

“ Gold’s not in it,” was the grave reply. “ You saved 
Dolly — she has told me all about it — and God has saved 
her to-night.” 

“ To him be all the praise,” said Rob reverently. 

“ Amen,” said Ted fervently. 


XXXIV 

THE DAY OF “ MERRYCLES ** 

U NCLE JOHN decided that Gail should take a 
year or two at the school Ruth attended, and that 
pretty diplomat was accordingly elated. She insisted on 
starting a week earlier than was necessary and, when 
pressed for a reason, confessed that she had promised 
her particular school friend to bring Gail to her home 
for a short visit before studying must begin. 

“ But how could she know I was to go back with 
you?” questioned Gail. 

“ Because,” was the truly feminine reply, supple- 
mented by, “ couldn’t you have spent a week with me 
at Ella Ringold’s house even if you had no idea of 
going to school, Goosie ? ” 

“ Still it’s a little odd seeing we are not acquainted,” 
ventured the maiden. 

“ Oh, Ella’s acquainted with you all right,” was the 
laughing response, “ and it won’t take you long to know 
her from A to Z she is so willing to give herself away.” 

It was on the very afternoon of their arrival at this 
stranger’s house, and while Miss Ringold and Ruth 
were trying to settle some disputed question, that Gail — 
at the window — espied a tall, gaunt form approaching 
which looked familiar. As it drew nearer she could no 
longer doubt her eyes and rose excitedly exclaiming: 
“ It is Miss Hines, Ruth, and I believe she’s coming 
here.” 


408 


GAIL WESTON 


“ Of course she is,” answered the young lady ad- 
dressed coolly. “ She said she’d be here about as soon 
as you were.” 

Gail cast her friend a puzzled glance — but could not 
stay for questioning — as she hurried to the door. Miss 
Hines it really was and she clasped the young girl’s 
two hands warmly while she scanned her face. “ You’re 

the same girl I saw at W she said, nodding her 

head in emphasis, “ oney you’re more like your grand- 
mother if anythin’ than you was then.” 

“ Like my grandmother ? ” queried Gail laughing. 
“ It seems I have struck a whole bunch of mysteries. 
Have I a fairy godmother somewhere too ? ” 

“Not that I’ve hearn tell, I never seen her. But I 
kin anser for a rale flesh an’ blood gran’pa an’ gran’ma, 
an’ that ort’r satisfy enny ord’nary girl, seems to me. 
I’ve come to take you right over; she’s possessed to see 
you an’ can’t wait.” 

“ She ? Godmother or grandmother ? ” laughed Gail 
again, and the spinster laughed with her. 

“ Didn’t I tell you I warn’t acquainted with no god- 
mother?” she asked. “How could I be, sence I’m 
neither Episcopal nor fairy tale? It’s your Gran’ma 
Weston that’s a-waitin’ for you.” 

“ * Grandma Weston ! ’ ” cried Gail in astonishment. 
“ Are you sure, Miss Hines? ” 

“ As sure as I’ll ever be of ennythin’. I was keerful 
not to say a word till I see the stage coach a-goin’ by 
an’ Ruth theer a-wavin’ her han’. Them was my * North 
Church Tower ’ an’ ‘ signal light.’ Then I tole her how 
the girl that sung for her when she was at Cousin Sarah 
Rachel Sanderson’s was a-stoppin’ over at Mis’ Rin- 
golds’s, I didn’t dare tell her the truth suddent — joy’ll 


THE DAY OF “ MERRYCLES ” 409 

kill as quick as lightnin’ sometimes — so I sort’r walked 
round it. She looked int’rested right orf — I’ve kep’ say- 
in’ somethin’ ’bout that singin’ girl now an’ agin pretty 
steady — an’ sez she, * Lovisy, invite her over, I want to 
see what she looks like. I was too sick to notice then or 
to thank her proper.’ So then sez I, kind’r easy like, 
* When you see her you’ll see yourself as I fust knew 
you, ma’am.’ An’ she looked up agin, pleased like, 
4 Does she favor me ? ’ sez she. 

“ 1 Who has she a better right to favor ? ’ sez I, bold 
as a lion an’ scared to the bone. 4 She’s got your name.’ 
Then she fell to tremblin’. * Tain’t Theodore’s little 
girl, Lovisy,’ sez she. * Ef ’taint her ’tain’t no one, 
ma’am,’ sez I, * an’ the Lord’s mighty good to sen’ her 
round agin. P’raps,’ sez I, hurryin’ on, 4 p’raps now you 
can guess who her brother was — the sick boy she 
nussed.’ She turned white as a sheet an’ grabbed my 
dress. ‘ So near an’ — an’ I didn’t see him,’ sez she, cry- 
in’ bitter like. 4 You will see him an’ hear him too,’ sez 
I, chipper like. ‘ He’s goin’ to preach the gorspel, an’ 
is fittin’ for it this minute at college ; that’s how God an- 
sers prayer an’ we not half thankful.’ You see I had to 
get her mind on the Lord quick for fear she’d collapse. 
After that nothin’d do but I must git you.” 

“ And grandpa ? ” asked Gail through tears. 

“ Doesn’t know a thin’ about it an’ nobody knowin’ 
how he’ll take ennythin’. But I guess the Lord kin fix 
him up same’s he does other poor sinners, though he’s 
awful stubborn.” 

Ruth was standing just within the sitting-room door, 
her friend’s hat and jacket in her hands. “You dear 
schemer,” whispered Gail, as she was helped into her 
coat , 44 you are responsible for this ! ” 


4io 


GAIL WESTON 


“ So is Lovisa,” was the smiling reply. “ I spent 
Christmas week with Ella, you know, and it was then 
our plot was hatched. How beautifully dear old Uncle 
John fell into the trap I set for his feet! ” 

The fair, frail old lady sat close to the library win- 
dow looking out when Miss Hines and her companion 
turned into the front yard. She started from her chair 
as the two entered the room' she occupied. 

“ Where is my child ? ” she asked tremulously. 

“ Here, grandma/’ cried Gail, reseating her gently, 
“ and I am going to kneel right here before you and let 
you look at me all you please.” She tossed her hat on 
the couch and dropped beside the low rocker as she 
spoke, tenderly smoothing the palm of the wrinkled 
hand extended to her. 

“ I’m so, so glad to find you, grandma,” she said, her 
every word a caress. “ I’ve been hungry for you ever 
since Ted told me so much about you. He loves you 
so dearly and has made you so real to me that I’ve 
known you for years.” 

Tears were dimming the eyes lifted to the maiden’s, 
but they were brushed impatiently away as the trembling 
hand drew the fresh young face close and studied it in- 
tently. “Yes,” said grandma, “you are my olden self 
over again, you are Theodore’s little girl and have his 
voice. God is good to me.” 

“ He has been good to me too, grandma,” whispered 
Gail, “ and good to Ted. You want to know about Ted, 
who loves you so much, who is still your boy? He is 
so good, and loves God as truly. He is doing splendid 
work at college and is preparing to preach the gospel.” 

“ God is good,” quavered grandma again, the tears 
flowing unhindered, and Lovisa slipped out of the room. 


THE DAY OF “ MERRYCLES ” 41 1 

It was an hour or two later and Gail was in the 
back parlor singing, when Miss Hines— on the watch- 
saw a masculine figure crossing the lower garden and 
caught her sunbonnet from its peg. “ The Lord help 
me now,” she muttered fervently as she went forth to 
meet it. 

“ You’ve comp’ny, Mr. Weston,” she said, as she 
halted in the path before the gentleman. 

“ That’s not bad news if it’s agreeable company,” 
smiled the iron-gray old man. 

“ It’s of the right sort,” answered the maid em- 
phatically. “ There’s two women in the house, both of 
’en with one name an’ both of ’em the nearest flesh an’ 
blood you own.” 

“How’s that?” Grandpa Weston lifted his hat and 
gave his head a puzzled scratch. “ The same name and 
the nearest flesh and blood I own. Is it a conundrum, 
Lovisa ? I give it up.” 

“Who’s the nearest own folks you’ve got?” 

“ Your mistress.” 

“ And next her ? ” 

“ There is no next.” 

“ Yes, there is, David Weston, an’ you know it. 
Denyin’ fac’s don’t change ’em. Theer’s two Abigail 
Sercross Westons in that air house an’ they both b’long 
to you an’ it’s at your peril you deny either of ’em. 
An’ hear this,” with lifted hand, “ when you put that air 
girl out’r your house, you put the Lord out of it an’ 
kill your wife. You nearly killed her when you drove 
Ted out — she’s never been the same sence — but he’s 
prospered without you an’ you could well afford to be 
proud of him this day — theer’s those that be — an’ ” 

“ Is that Allen woman’s daughter at my house ? ” 


412 


GAIL WESTON 


“No; she’s Theodore Weston’s daughter an’ your 
gran’daughter.” 

“ Who brought her here ? ” 

“ I did.” 

“ Then I hope you’re prepared to take the conse- 
quences.” 

“ I am, an’, what’s more, I’m ready to do enny dirty 
work that’s to be done. Ef that girl’s to be put out of 
that house I’m goin’ to put her out.” 

“You! I’d like to see you attempt to put any one 
out of my house.” 

“ It’d be fully as becomin’ to me as to you an’ I’d 
not be trampin’ my own flesh and blood under foot to 
do it, an’ disgracin’ sich a bringin’ up as you had — you 
a man of standin’ an’ a State legislature ! ” 

David Weston’s mouth expanded, his eyes twinkled. 
His maid’s English had never ceased to be a diversion 
to him. Her heart lifted as she saw the smile. “ Have 
I ever turned a woman out of my house yet ? ” he 
demanded. 

“Not to my knowin’.” 

“ Then wait till I do before you charge me with it.” 

Lovisa stood directly in his path as he attempted to 
go on. “ Listen a minnit,” she said, a note of pleading 
in her tone. “Take heed to me for once, David Wes- 
ton, and for your wife’s sake an’ the years of care I 
have given her, do me one small favor. She’s dyin’, 
is your wife ” — the woman swallowed hard and there 
was an ominous falter in her voice — “jest fadin’ away 
for the sight of her own ; an’ God has sent her own to 
her. Unbeknown to her, her own gran’daughter — with 
her father’s voice for singin’ — came to comfort her 
with a hymn or two when she was sick an’ sore an’ lyin’ 


THE DAY OF " MERRYCLES ” 413 

at Sarah Rachel Sanderson’s house. An’ now God has 
sent that child ’round agin ; she’s here. I’m not goin’ to 
ask much of you, David Weston, oney this — that you’ll 
go soft-like into the lib’ry an’ set wheer you kin watch 
that child a-singin’, an’ that you’ll look from that young 
face — the dead image of the one you brought a bride to 
this house thirty odd years ago — to the wastin’ face 
of the woman who’s listenin’, an’ — rememb’ring whose 
daughter she is an’ whose voice she’s got — you’ll take 
heed to the voice within you an’ obey it. An’,” sol- 
emnly, “ may the Lord deal with you in the day of 
jedgment as you deal with them two wimmen.” Lo- 
visa turned toward the house beckoning him to follow. 

He only hesitated a moment then, with a quiet step, 
went to the house, entered the library, and took the 
chair hidden behind the portiere from which he could 
take in the back parlor and its occupants. He did not 
heed the fact that he was being watched also, or note 
that the steel blue eyes fixed upon him lit with satis- 
faction when they saw him start at the first sight of the 
singer’s face. Those same eyes grew exultant presently 
as a subtle change crept over the stern countenance of 
the listening man, softening the hard lips, transfusing 
the deep-set eyes beneath the rugged brows. 

“ Am I tiring you, grandma ? ” asked the maiden, 
swinging about on the piano stool to place a kiss upon 
the dear face of her auditor. 

“ How can you ask ? I haven’t been as rested in 
years. If you are not weary, dear, I want one more — a 
favorite. Your father used to sing ‘ Home, Sweet 
Home,’ whenever he came back after being away, and 
Ted loved to sing it to me too, when vacation time came, 
I should like to hear it again if you know it, dear.” 


414 


GAIL WESTON 


“ I’ve sung it often with Ted,” cried Gail, and then 
the sw r eet old song — sung as neither of those present 
had ever heard it sung before, wistfully, reverently, 
joyously — filled their ears and hearts to overflowing. 

It was scarcely ended when Grandpa Weston was on 
his feet and beside the piano, his face working with 
some mighty emotion. 

“ Gail Weston, I am your grandfather/’ he said 
huskily, as the last note died away. “ You belong to 
me and this other Gail. This is your ‘ Home, Sweet 
Home ’ after this.” 

“ O David,” quavered grandma, dropping back into 
the chair from which she had started nervously at his 
appearance, “ O David, how good God is.” 

It is doubtful if her husband heard her. He was 
holding a slender form close to his breast, while two 
arms clung to his neck. “My home and Ted’s,” whis- 
pered his daring granddaughter. “ Say it is Ted’s too, 
grandpa.” 

“Yes,” answered the old man, “it shall be as you 
please, Sweetheart. It is Ted’s home as well as yours. 
Its doors are open wide to whomever you wish to bring 
into it.” 

“ An’ yet some fools say the day of merrycles is 
past,” muttered Lovisa scornfully, as she took herself 
and her tears to the kitchen. “ My, ef it wasn’t so im- 
proper I’d like to dance a jig this minnit. ‘It’s the 
Lord’s doin’s an’ marvelous in our eyes.’ 

He has cast the mighty down; 

Horse an’ rider sink an’ drown. 

That John Whittier couldn’t a wrote it truer ef he’d 
ben here an’ seen it all. Sure 


THE DAY OF “ MERRYCLES ” 415 

This spot is holy ground, 

Lord, forgive us ! what air we, 

That our eyes sich glory see, 

That our ears have heer’d the sound ! ” 

Ted and Horace both passed the next vacation at 
Mr. Weston’s, for as Gail’s school was only a few miles 
distant, she made her home with them, being driven 
back and forth daily by her grandfather who was her 
sworn knight. 

The meeting between Ted and his grandparents is 
better imagined than described. Lovisa rushed from 
the room when she saw her mistress in the young man’s 
arms, sobbing and whispering : “ ‘ Lord, now lettest 
thou thy servant depart in peace for mine eyes have 
seen thy salvation,’ ” adding solemnly, “ but not while 
enny of ’em needs me, Lord.” 

Gail’s presence wrought marvelous changes in the 
old home. It took on gaiety. Ruth became a constant 
visitor there and almost every Saturday saw her and 
one or two other girl friends come to stop over Sunday. 
Grandpa declared he was renewing his youth ; he cer- 
tainly played open court to all of these maidens and was 
never so happy as when carrying a sleigh or carriage- 
load of them back to school on Monday mornings. 

“ That girl’s a witch, she’d ben burned whole ef she 
had lived in old Salem days,” Miss Hines declared when 
she saw Alice and Dolly welcomed so cordially aifd 
when Tom Rollins — Maria Allen’s son without one 
drop of Weston blood in him — became a prime favor- 
ite with the old senator. She “ allowed somebuddy had 
outprayed her — her faith hadn’t soared as high as all 
that.” 

Ted was not less surprised than Lovisa when he saw 


416 


GAIL WESTON 


how freely Gail was allowed to run away home to her 
mother and when no restrictions were laid on his own 
freedom. 

" What have you done to make grandpa over, Gail ? ” 
he asked. 

“Not a thing but loved him, ,, she replied. 

“ He is gold to the core and doesn’t need making 
over,” declared Tom, who had overheard the question 
and answer. 

Ted smiled and felt inclined to agree with his old 
nurse when she assured him “ Theer’s mysteries of 
grace beyond our penetratin’. This is one of ’em.” 


XXXV 


MARRIAGE BELLS 

T ED had won his degree, he was a full-fledged col- 
lege graduate. Next fall, God willing, would see 
his course at the theological seminary begun. He was 
glad, yet not altogether glad ; he craved something else 
to add to his joy. Gail was to be married the follow- 
ing week. He had not expected to be able to reach 
home much before the occasion, but jvas minded now to 
go at once unannounced. He wished to take somebody 
by surprise. 

Ruth had lost her father two years before and had 
spent much of the time since in Europe traveling with 
her mother. She was to be his sister’s first bridesmaid, 
however, as he was to be best man to the groom, Rob 
and Alice serving as seconds — and quite likely had 
reached Greenville. He felt hungry for the sight of 
her, but what might not have happened in these months 
of absence? She so beautiful, so gifted, what was more 
probable than that some one more worthy of her than 
himself had already secured her affections. He breathed 
hard as he pondered. 

And if this thing he feared had not occurred, if she 
was still heart-free, could he hope she would care for 
such a man as himself? Could she forget his past? 
Could she trust him with her love, her life? Ought 
he to ask, expect it? His face grew very grave as he 
put these queries to his own soul. Yet God, the Holiest, 

2 B 417 


418 


GAIL WESTON 


had trusted him with his love, his work ! Knowing 
this might he not dare to hope? He would put it to 
the test. 

It was afternoon when he reached Greenville, and, 
dress-suit case in hand, swung up the quiet street which 
he had walked for the first time eight years before. 
This tall broad-shouldered, sun-burned, alert young man 
was perhaps less exquisite in air and dress than that 
youth of long ago, but he was infinitely his superior. 
Courage breathed from his whole person, yet humility 
as well; that rare combination that sometimes crowns 
God’s favored sons. Theodore Weston had most truly 
learned his own weakness, but he had just as truly 
learned that inexhaustible strength of Him whom he 
believed. There was a light on the handsome face, and 
a firmness in the quick tread unknown to other days. 

Gail was sitting in the bay window of the pretty 
parlor alone, a letter from Horace in her lap, beside it 
the towel she had been hemming and had dropped to 
peruse the precious epistle. The joy in her heart 
flooded her face as with eyes strayed quite beyond the 
present, she dreamed happy dreams. Ted caught sight 
of her and entered the house on tiptoe, opening the door 
noiselessly to the room where she sat that he might look 
his fill unperceived. 

It was a charming room, simple, but dainty. Dolly’s 
piano stood open, Ruth’s vase — now filled with flowers 
— upon it. The afternoon sun streamed across the 
cheerful carpet, lighted up the delicate wall-paper and 
decorations, caught itself in the meshes of Gail’s rich 
hair thrown carelessly up from her forehead, kindling 
a glow wherever it rested, reminding the intruder of 
the hidden fires behind a cloud-swept sunset scene. 


MARRIAGE BELLS 


419 


Did he move? What brought the dreamer suddenly 
back to the actual? He sprang forward as she lifted 
her eyes. “ Don’t move,” he cried. “ O Gail, what a 
picture you make! How beautiful you are! You are 
Grandma Weston grown young, inspired! Let me look 
at you.” 

He dropped at her feet, took both of her hands and 
drew her close to kiss her lips. “ And what is this ? 
A letter from Horace? Gail, he is the only man I have 
ever known that I thought worthy of you. What! 
blushing? I wish he could see you now. I wish I was 
as sure of the heart of the woman I love as he is of 
yours.” 

“ Why should you not be ? ” His sister regarded him 
with fond, proud eyes as her fingers ran through his 
dark locks. “ How shall he not with him, freely give 
us all things.” 

“ ‘ Us ! ’ Even unworthy me, Gail ? ” 

“ Unworthy * us/ ” she smiled. “ It is ‘ with Him ’ 
that we get, as it is through him we are made worthy.” 

Ted kissed the lips that spoke so graciously. “ You 
have been God’s voice to me always,” he said. “ I will 
believe you are his voice to-day. Where are the 
children ? ” 

“ I really don’t know. Pet has gone to have a chat 
with some girl friend I believe. O Ted, you’ll never 
know Ben, he has grown so tall. He is quite up to me 
already. He’s off on a tramp with Ruth.” 

“ Then she has come ? ” 

“ Of course. She couldn’t be spared just now. Take 
courage, her first word was to inquire of you and her 
letters have not been wanting in that direction.” 

Ted was kept busy in the days that followed. His 


420 


GAIL WESTON 


mother’s anxiety that the wedding should be the most 
select and elegant of affairs kept everybody in a state 
of unrest and demanded the constant attention and 
attendance of her firstborn. 

Many of the guests were from a distance. Horace, 
his uncle, Rob — together with some of Gail’s school 
friends and Mr. and Mrs. Samuel Dyke — were made 
welcome at Mrs. Banscombe’s hospitable mansion, as 
the limits of the cottage were stretched to accommo- 
date the immediate members of the family with the 
addition of Mr. and Mrs. Weston and Miss Hines. This 
last individual received a cordial, if rather conde- 
scending welcome from Mrs. Rollins, who felt herself 
equal to any emergency thus reenforced, especially as 
Lovisa at once promised to take charge of the wedding 
dinner. 

“ I’ve brought Gail’s cake ’long with me as I told her 
I would,” she said, “ so that’s seen to, an’ I’ll warrant 
nobuddy’s ever tasted better ef I do say it. I never had 
no weddin’ of my own, thanks be, but I’ve ’ficiated a 
good many ’s far’s cake’s consarned.” 

It was beautifully unostentatious and reverent, that 
marriage ceremony. The bride and bridesmaids were 
alike charming. Nobody carried a doleful or anxious 
face except Mrs. Rollins, though there was more than 
one tearful one when, after the clergyman had pro- 
nounced the pair husband and wife, Horace drew his 
bride to him and, kissing her tenderly, said : “ I thank 
God for this gift of his love.” 

The usual amount of congratulations, refreshments, 
kisses, good-bys, rice, followed; then a great gap 
seemed to open suddenly in the family circle and 
grandma and Mrs. Rollins had to be put to bed. Mrs. 


MARRIAGE BELLS 


421 


Banscombe’s carryall came for Ruth and those of the 
guests who were to stop over until the morrow; Tom 
buried himself in a book; Ted and Rob strode silently 
up and down under the trees on the hill; Uncle John 
alternated looking out of the window at nothing with 
blowing his nose noisily; while Mr. Weston divided 
his attention between the newspapers and his specta- 
cles, which last bothered him unaccountably. Only 
Alice and Dolly shed tears openly and without attempt 
at disguise — tears of mingled joy and sorrow. 

The next morning Mr. and Mrs. Weston, with Lo- 
visa, took an early train home, Ted promising to join 
them in a few days. By noon the last of the guests had 
departed, even Rob and Tom. The girls, with Ted and 
Ruth, spent the afternoon in sorting and packing away 
Gail’s many gifts, and after supper the young man had 
the opportunity he coveted of escorting Ruth home. 

It was difficult to improve it however, for the 
maiden, having exerted herself the better part of the 
day in helping her friends to forget their loss, was 
still full of fun and seemed determined to defeat his 
purpose. A dozen times he led up to the subject upper- 
most in his heart and a dozen times she turned it 
aside by some irrelevant remark. 

“ Ruth,” he exclaimed at last, ruefully, as they neared 
her home, “ you have done nothing but laugh at me this 
evening. You will not permit me to say a word of my 
love. I think you have done nothing but laugh at me 
since the first hour I was introduced to you, eight years 
ago.” 

“Would you rather I should cry? I hate to — it 
spoils my eyes and I like to look pretty. One must 
consider appearances, you know,” she answered merrily 


422 


GAIL WESTON 


“ And,” mischievously, “ I wouldn’t be guilty of marry- 
ing a man who wasn’t worth laughing at or who pre- 
ferred tears to smiles.” 

“Is that meant to encourage me, Ruth ? ” They had 
mounted the outer steps, her latchkey was in the lock. 

“ As if Gail’s brother needed encouragement,” she 
laughed. 

“ You don’t begin to know how much I need it. May 
I call and talk with your mother to-morrow, dear ? ” 

“You desire encouragement in that direction too? 
I promise my kind offices in preparing her for the 
dread interview. Good night.” She withdrew the hand 
he had taken and disappeared. 

“ Mamma,” said Ruth the next morning, “ if Ted 
Weston comes to see you to-day I want you to grant 
him whatever he may ask.” 

“ Grant him what he may ask ! ” Mrs. Banscombe 
looked at her daughter in some astonishment. “ What 
can he want that I can give him ? ” 

“ You know he is to be a minister and will need a 
helper,” explained the girl cautiously. 

“ A helper ! Help, do you mean ? Really, Ruth there 
is a bottom to my purse. Your father did not leave 
me money enough to educate all the young men who 
need help.” 

“ I doubt if Ted wants anything of that kind,” an- 
swered the maiden demurely. “ A young man who has 
worked his way through college is very likely able to do 
the same through the theological school. Then, don’t 
forget, he has found an uncle and recovered a grand- 
father of late.” 

“ I had forgotten and so must you, or what can you 
mean by saying he wants help ? ” 


MARRIAGE BELLS 423 

“ I did not say he wanted help, mamma. I said he 
had need of a helper.” 

“ And what’s the difference between the statements, 
pray? Help or helper, he will scarcely come to me.” 

“ Ah, but I am sure he will.” 

“ Then I shall have to turn him over to you if he is 
as much of an enigma as you are this morning. It is a 
lovely day! Suppose we take a drive.” 

“Not this forenoon, mamma; or not for an hour or 
two, please. You won’t wish to be out should you 
chance to have a caller, and he is Prince Charming, I 
assure you — well worth remaining at home to see.” 

“He! Who? Is it Ted Weston you’re still harping 
on ? Ruth, you look guilty ! I believe you’re blushing ! 
That boy hasn’t had the audacity to — to ” 

“ He’s very audacious, mamma. He has as good as 
asked me to be his helper, or helpmeet, and I want you 
to give your consent.” 

“ Ruth — Ruth Banscombe, do you mean to tell me 
you are thinking of marrying that wild, bad boy ? ” 

“ 4 Wild, bad boy,’ indeed ! Not I. I’m thinking of 
marrying a cultivated Christian gentleman. He has 
been transplanted from the roadside and is growing in 
the garden of the Lord. I want to grow beside him.” 
The girl was at her mother’s knee now looking up into 
her face beseechingly. She knew what she had become 
to her mother during these last two years. “ Nothing 
else will satisfy me,” she whispered. “ I love, love him, 
mamma.” 

“ Love that wild, reckless boy that cost his sister 
such heartaches ! ” 

“ Hush ! Not even you shall call him names. He is 
no boy now, he’s God’s man preparing to do God’s 


424 


GAIL WESTON 


work. Wait till you see him. He’ll just captivate you ; 
you’ll be helpless before him, as I am, only I don’t let 
him know it, and you mustn’t. You must hold on to 
your dignity, mamma, and give your daughter away re- 
luctantly — at least in appearance — for decency’s sake. 
But, my, if you only could guess how glad most moth- 
ers would be to get their hands on him. It is cause for 
congratulation that he wasn’t snapped up before he got 
as far as us.’’ 

“ How absurd you can be, Ruth,” laughed her mother. 
“ Really the man who marries you will need to be a rid- 
dle reader. If he was only like Gail now,” with a sigh. 

“ He is — ‘ perzactly,’ as Benny used to say. He has 
the same gentleness and strength ; the same quiet 
faculty of getting his own way; and he’s so humble, 
mamma, and sincere, and straightforward. You can 
look clear to the bottom of his eyes, as you can Gail’s, 
and they answer you back fearlessly.” 

“ One might take you for a lawyer pleading his own 
cause.” Mrs. Banscombe sighed again. 

“ I am and my heart’s in my plea. I must win it or 
do something desperate. You wouldn’t like to force 
a young minister to elope with your daughter, would 
you, mamma? Think of the disgrace it would bring all 
around. Please don’t drive me to proposing such an 
expedient.” 

“ You silly child ! ” The lady hugged the bright head 
to her bosom and kissed the ripe lips. “ I suppose you’ll 
have your own way as you always do. I only hope 
you’ll never regret it.” 

“ I’m not afraid to risk it. I know my heart and I 
know Ted, and I’ve known for years that the only per- 
son who stood between me and spinsterhood was his 


MARRIAGE BELLS 425 

own dear self. Think of being a minister’s wife, 
mamma. What an opportunity ! ” 

“To be the slave of some church, do you mean? ” 

“ Impossible ! Say rather to be the bond-slave of the 
Lord Jesus Christ, and, therefore, the willing servant 
of all who need service,” cried the maiden lifting her 
shining eyes. “ Mamma, my cup runneth over.” 


XXXVI 


GOOD-BY 


OLLY was on the watch for Ted’s return the 



LJ evening he went home with Ruth and met him at 
the door. 

“ What news ? ” she asked eagerly. 

“ No news,” he answered with a smile that was not 
altogether sad. 

“ You’ll have the best of news for me some day,” she 
said cheerily, “ and I’m so glad to have you here over 
Sunday. It was a disappointment to Gail not to see 
Uncle John and myself baptized, but she was as sure as 
I was that it must be put off until you could be here. 
If I had taken my own way — if you yourself had not 
advised otherwise — I should have waited until these 
hands had right to administer the ordinance,” burying 
her face fondly in her brother’s open palms. “ I want 
you to have a nice talk with Uncle John. Isn’t it 
beautiful that he is going with me ? ” 

“And that his favorite niece has led him to her 
Saviour,” assented Ted. 

“Ah, but you began it. You brought me and told 
me to find some one else. Uncle was the only person 
I could influence except Pet. I believe that child is 
almost ready. I wish mother was.” 

“ She’ll come some day, Dolly. You and I need 
patience as well as prayer. Think of the years Gail 
prayed and waited for us,” replied Ted, and then they 


426 


GOOD-BY 


427 


entered the pleasant parlor where Mr. Allen sat reading 
the paper and Mrs. Rollins rocked herself softly back 
and forth, her folded hands in her lap. 

“ I’m glad you’ve got back,” she said greeting the 
new-comer. “ This house is as still as the grave after 
all the bustle and gaiety. “Well, it was a success,” 
with a sigh, “ and I’ve seen a sight I never expected to 
see — David Weston eating and drinking at my table. 
He treated me well too. Nobody could have guessed 
from his behavior how bitter he was once against me.” 

“ God has been very good to you, mother,” said her 
son, seating himself in a low chair directly in front of 
her. 

“ That’s what I’ve been telling Maria,” said Uncle 
John, laying down his paper. “ I tell her she ought to 
be praying David’s prayer : ‘ What shall I render unto 
the Lord for all his benefits toward me?’ If she only 
would * take the cup of salvation and call upon the name 
of the Lord,’ my cup would be overflowing.” 

Mrs. Rollins lifted her hands in mild protest. “ Noth- 
ing will suit your uncle, Theodore, except my joining 
the church when he and Dolly do,” she said querulously. 
“ I can’t see why I should. I’m no different from what 
I’ve always been and don’t see why I should be any 
different. He says the Lord has blessed me, and it’s 
true, but I’m sure I waited long enough and toiled hard 
enough for something to come, and it’s no more than 
right that it should. It seems to me his sending it is 
pretty good proof that the Lord thinks I have done my 
part and lived pretty near as I ought. There’s not 
many mothers that have had their children turn out as 
well as mine — as John himself admits. And there’s a 
reason for it. I’ve done my duty by you all, if I do 


428 


GAIL WESTON 


say it, and it’s nothing more than right that blessing 
should follow.” 

“Mother!” cried Ted amazed, and Dolly beckoned 
her uncle from the room and quietly closed the door. 
“ Ted can do more for her than we can,” she explained. 

Mrs. Rollins sat up very straight and stopped rocking 
at that sharp exclamation. “ I don’t know what you 
mean, Theodore,” she said bridling. 

“ And I don’t know what you mean by the statement 
you have just made,” was the gentle reply. “ Surely 
you do not think your care and effort made Gail what 
she is, or brought Allie, Tom, Dolly, and myself to 
Jesus? ” 

Mrs. Rollins began to cry. “ You were always hard 
on me,” she whimpered. 

“ I do not intend to be now,” the young man an- 
swered, “ and I ask your pardon for every unkind 
thought I have ever cherished against you and for every 
unkind word I have ever spoken to you. I love you 
very dearly, so well that I must not let you go on think- 
ing that you have earned the blessings God has so freely 
given to you, hoping thus to draw you to himself. 
Mother dear, it has been the one member of this family 
who loved Jesus Christ who has brought it blessing. 
I do not know who taught Gail to love God, but that 
she has loved and served him we all can testify. Who 
led Alice and Tom to the Saviour, after having 
smoothed their father’s path to the grave? Who fol- 
lowed me with prayer and care when I was mad with 
grief and sin ? ” 

The young man drew his chair nearer to his mother 
and took both her hands into his own. “ Mother, you 
have not known — I have never told you — how near you 


GOOD-BY 


429 


drove me to despair and destruction by your fault- 
finding, your lack of faith in me, in my purposes; by 
your lack of faith in God. It was not Gail that drew 
me home, it was you ; and yet you came near wrecking 
my life. Gail held me to believe in God and man and 
through Horace — whom she had brought to Christ — I 
was brought also. Mother, dear mother, forgive your 
boy for telling you the truth, but it has been Gail, not 
you, who has brought God’s blessing on this home; Gail, 
not you, who has made your children what they are. 
Mother, you and I belong to the same class — ‘ we have 
sinned and come short of the glory of God’ — though 
I have been the greater sinner of the two. But he loves 
us; he gave his Son to die for us. O mother, thank 
him, with me, for his love; with me, accept it; let me 
hold your hand — for you can help me now — as I walk 
the only safe path for such feet as mine. Let us serve 
him together.” 

Before his plea was ended his mother’s face was hid- 
den in his neck. “ Oh, but it is dreadful to hear you 
say such things to me,” she sobbed. 

“ It is dreadful to have to say them,” he answered 
tenderly, “ But I have something better to say, some- 
thing true and beautiful; mother, ‘The blood of Jesus 
Christ, his Son, cleanseth us from all sin.’ ” 

Dolly was sitting on the foot of Ted’s bed waiting 
for him when, having led his mother to her chamber 
door, he repaired to his own. 

“Well?” she questioned eagerly. 

“ She is like a child — an invalid— learning to walk,” 
was his reply. “ But, Dolly, I believe she has seen 
something of her own heart to-night. Could that have 


430 


GAIL WESTON 


been possible unless she had also caught some vision 
of her Lord ? ” 

Ruth sat beside Ted the next Sunday as Dolly and 
her uncle were baptized. She was not prepared for the 
appearance of a third candidate and started when Mrs. 
Rollins was led gently forward. 

“ It is your mother,” she cried softly, looking up to 
her affianced’s face. “ Did you know she was coming? ” 

His smile answered her. 

“ And you — you ? ” she questioned. 

“ ‘ Unto me has this grace been given also/ ” he re- 
plied tremulously. 

Is this story ended ? Emphatically no. “ Cottage 
Farm ” is the name by which the old Rollins house is 
known now, and it stands amid smiling acres of grain 
and fields of clover which Uncle John has bought up 
for farmer Ben. One daughter still graces the home — 
Pet, grown tall and fair — making it bright for the 
young farmer and his mother and uncle. Thither at 
times comes Dolly from her work in a distant city in 
a home set apart for the saving of girls. She is most 
truly valued and loved by those she helps, and when one 
of them says — as sometimes one does, with trembling 
lips — “ Miss Dorothea is an angel,” there is always 
somebody ready to add what Dolly herself once 
said of Rob — “ such a funny angel ” ; for the grace 
and healing of humor are still hers. 

Grandma Weston has fallen asleep and her husband 
divides his time between the homes of his two grand- 
children. He reads eagerly every line Tom — now in 
Greece engaged in scientific researches — sends home, 
and Ted’s face lighted one day when, looking up from 


GOOD-BY 


431 


the page he perused the old gentleman exclaimed : “ In 
every wonder that chap turns up he finds God, and 
that’s exactly what Ben finds in his cabbage lot.” 

Miss Hines is also a member of Ted’s household, be- 
sides being the presiding genius of the old Weston 
homestead when he and Ruth, with the children make 
their yearly pilgrimages thither. 

The world has already heard from Rob and his wife 
is very proud of him as he surely is of her; but the 
actual Mecca of this family group is Beechlands, for 
there Gail abides. With fond consent they all turn to 
her whether in weal or woe. Of Horace they speak 
with flashing eyes and lifted heads, for at the nation’s 
capital he is faithfully serving God by serving his 
fellow-men. He knows how much of his success is due 
to another, for the words spoken to Ted the day Gail 
pledged him her troth have been verified : “ I have 
found my heart’s home and my home’s heart,” and who 
can give such inspiration as a genuine home-maker? 

Loving, gracious, unconscious, Rob’s long-ago esti- 
mation of her holds true : “ She will never know that 
she is a queen in her own right and that her kingdom 
is the hungry heart of mankind.” No, she does not 
know that, but she does know the kingdom of God and 
how to guide weary feet into it. 


The End 






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